RFID system with RF bus

ABSTRACT

A radio frequency identification (RF) system includes an RF reader, an RF tag, and a network connection module. The RF reader includes a reader radio frequency (RF) bus transceiver. The network connection module includes a network connection RF bus transceiver, wherein the reader RF bus transceiver exchanges at least one of inbound RF data and outbound RF data with the network RF bus transceiver via an RF bus.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENTS/PATENT APPLICATIONS Division PriorityClaim, 35 U.S.C. §120/121

The present U.S. Utility Patent Application claims priority pursuant to35 U.S.C. §120/121, as a division, to the following U.S. Utility PatentApplication which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety and made part of the present U.S. Utility Patent Applicationfor all purposes:

-   -   1. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 13/032,731, entitled        “RFID SYSTEM WITH RF BUS,” filed Feb. 23, 2011, pending, which        claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §120, as a continuation,        to the following U.S. Utility Patent Application which is hereby        incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and made part        of the present U.S. Utility Patent Application for all purposes:    -   2. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/700,286, entitled        “RFID SYSTEM WITH RF BUS,” filed Jan. 31, 2007, now issued as        U.S. Pat. No. 7,899,394 on Mar. 1, 2011, which claims priority        pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §120, as a continuation-in-part (CIP), to        the following U.S. Utility Patent Applications which are hereby        incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and made part        of the present U.S. Utility Patent Application for all purposes:    -   a. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/377,812, entitled        “RFID READER ARCHITECTURE,” filed Mar. 16, 2006, now issued as        U.S. Pat. No. 7,664,461 on Feb. 16, 2010.    -   b. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/394,808, entitled        “POWER GENERATING CIRCUIT,” filed Mar. 31, 2006, now issued as        U.S. Pat. No. 7,595,732 on Sep. 29, 2009.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

The following U.S. Utility Patent Applications are hereby incorporatedherein by reference in their entirety and made part of the present U.S.Utility Patent Application for all purposes:

1. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/700,285, entitled “RF BUSCONTROLLER,” filed Jan. 31, 2007, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,116,294on Feb. 14, 2012.

2. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/700,421, entitled“INTRA-DEVICE RF BUS AND CONTROL THEREOF,” filed Jan. 31, 2007, nowissued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,064,826 on Nov. 22, 2011.

3. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/700,517, entitled “SHAREDRF BUS STRUCTURE,” filed Jan. 31, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,809,329,issued on Oct. 5, 2010.

4. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/700,592, entitled “RFTRANSCEIVER DEVICE WITH RF BUS,” filed Jan. 31, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No.7,903,724, issued on Mar. 8, 2011.

5. U.S. Utility patent application Ser. No. 11/700,591, entitled “RF BUSACCESS PROTOCOL AND TRANSCEIVER,” filed Jan. 31, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No.8,068,790, issued on Nov. 29, 2011.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to wireless communication and moreparticularly to inter-device wireless communications.

2. Description of Related Art

Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire linedcommunications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices.Such communication systems range from national and/or internationalcellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-homewireless networks to radio frequency identification (RFID) systems. Eachtype of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, inaccordance with one or more communication standards. For instance,wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one ormore standards including, but not limited to, RFID, IEEE 802.11,Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access(CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS),multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variationsthereof.

Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wirelesscommunication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio,personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptopcomputer, home entertainment equipment, RFID reader, RFID tag, et ceteracommunicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communicationdevices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-pointcommunications), the participating wireless communication devices tunetheir receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g.,one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wirelesscommunication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirectwireless communications, each wireless communication device communicatesdirectly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services)and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-buildingwireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communicationconnection between the wireless communication devices, the associatedbase stations and/or associated access points communicate with eachother directly, via a system controller, via the public switch telephonenetwork, via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.

For each wireless communication device to participate in wirelesscommunications, it includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiverand transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g.,a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communicationnetworks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the receiver is coupled to theantenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediatefrequency stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage. The lownoise amplifier receives inbound RF signals via the antenna andamplifies then. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix theamplified RF signals with one or more local oscillations to convert theamplified RF signal into baseband signals or intermediate frequency (IF)signals. The filtering stage filters the baseband signals or the IFsignals to attenuate unwanted out of band signals to produce filteredsignals. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filteredsignals in accordance with the particular wireless communicationstandard.

As is also known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, oneor more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier. The datamodulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordancewith a particular wireless communication standard. The one or moreintermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or morelocal oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifiesthe RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.

In most applications, radio transceivers are implemented in one or moreintegrated circuits (ICs), which are inter-coupled via traces on aprinted circuit board (PCB). The radio transceivers operate withinlicensed or unlicensed frequency spectrums. For example, wireless localarea network (WLAN) transceivers communicate data within the unlicensedIndustrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) frequency spectrum of 900 MHz,2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz. While the ISM frequency spectrum is unlicensed thereare restrictions on power, modulation techniques, and antenna gain.

As IC fabrication technology continues to advance, ICs will becomesmaller and smaller with more and more transistors. While thisadvancement allows for reduction in size of electronic devices, it doespresent a design challenge of providing and receiving signals, data,clock signals, operational instructions, etc., to and from a pluralityof ICs of the device. Currently, this is addressed by improvements in ICpackaging and multiple layer PCBs. For example, ICs may include aball-grid array of 100-200 pins in a small space (e.g., 2 to 20millimeters by 2 to 20 millimeters). A multiple layer PCB includestraces for each one of the pins of the IC to route to at least one othercomponent on the PCB. Clearly, advancements in communication between ICsare needed to adequately support the forth-coming improvements in ICfabrication.

Therefore, a need exists for intra-device wireless communications andapplications thereof.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to apparatus and methods of operationthat are further described in the following Brief Description of theSeveral Views of the Drawings, the Detailed Description of theInvention, and the claims. Other features and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptionof the invention made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a wirelesscommunication system in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFID systemin accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a device inaccordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 4-6 are diagrams of embodiments of intra-device wirelesscommunications in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 7-10 are schematic block diagrams of other embodiments of a devicein accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a diagram of an embodiment of a frame of an intra-devicewireless communication in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 12-16 are schematic block diagrams of other embodiments of adevice in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 17-19 are schematic block diagrams of embodiments of an RFtransceiver device in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a diagram of an example of a frame of an RF transceiverdevice wireless communication in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a logic diagram of an embodiment of a method of resourceallocation for an intra-device wireless communication in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 22 is a diagram of another example of a frame of an RF transceiverdevice wireless communication in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a diagram of an example of mapping data of an RF transceiverdevice wireless communication in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 24 and 25 are schematic block diagrams of other embodiments of anRF transceiver device in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an RFIDsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 27 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an RFIDsystem in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 28 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFID readerin accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 29 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a receiversection of an RFID reader in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 30 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a transmittersection of an RFID reader in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 31 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFID tag inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 32 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an oscillationmodule of an RFID tag in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 33 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an antennastructure of an RFID tag in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 34 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of a devicein accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 35 is a logic diagram of a method for switching within a deviceaccordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 36-38 are diagrams of embodiments of a device in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 39 is a diagram of an embodiment of an intra-device RF buscommunication accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 40 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of a devicein accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 41 and 42 are diagrams of embodiments of a device in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 43 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a portion of anRF bus transceiver module in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 44 is a diagram of an embodiment of an inductor and/or transformeraccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 45 is a diagram of an embodiment of a capacitor accordance with thepresent invention;

FIGS. 46 and 47 are diagrams of embodiments of an IC in accordance withthe present invention;

FIG. 48 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RF buscontroller in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 49 is a logic diagram of method for controlling access to an RF busin accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 50 is a diagram of another embodiment of a frame of an RF buscommunication in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 51 is a logic diagram of method for determining RF bus resourceavailability in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 52 is a logic diagram of another method for controlling access toan RF bus in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 53 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of a devicein accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 54 is a logic diagram of another method for controlling access toan RF bus in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 55 is a logic diagram of another method for controlling access toan RF bus in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 56 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RF bustransceiver in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 57 is a logic diagram of method for RF bus transmitting inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 58 is a logic diagram of method for RF bus receiving in accordancewith the present invention;

FIG. 59 is a logic diagram of method for determining whether informationis to be transmitted via an RF bus in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 60 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a transmittersection of an RF bus transceiver in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIGS. 61-63 are schematic block diagrams of embodiments of anup-conversion module of a transmitter section in accordance with thepresent invention; and

FIG. 64 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a receiversection of an RF bus transceiver in accordance with the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a communication system10 that includes a plurality of base stations and/or access points12-16, a plurality of wireless communication devices 18-32 and a networkhardware component 34. The wireless communication devices 18-32 may belaptop host computers 18 and 26, personal digital assistant hosts 20 and30, personal computer hosts 24 and 32 and/or cellular telephone hosts 22and 28.

The base stations or access points 12 are operably coupled to thenetwork hardware 34 via local area network connections 36, 38 and 40.The network hardware 34, which may be a router, switch, bridge, modem,system controller, et cetera provides a wide area network connection 42for the communication system 10. Each of the base stations or accesspoints 12-16 has an associated antenna or antenna array to communicatewith the wireless communication devices in its area. Typically, thewireless communication devices register with a particular base stationor access point 12-14 to receive services from the communication system10. For direct connections (i.e., point-to-point communications),wireless communication devices communicate directly via an allocatedchannel.

Typically, base stations are used for cellular telephone systems andlike-type systems, while access points are used for in-home orin-building wireless networks. Regardless of the particular type ofcommunication system, each wireless communication device includes abuilt-in radio and/or is coupled to a radio. The radio includes a highlylinear amplifier and/or programmable multi-stage amplifier as disclosedherein to enhance performance, reduce costs, reduce size, and/or enhancebroadband applications.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFID (radiofrequency identification) system 50 that includes a communicationdevice, a computer, and/or a server 52, a plurality of RFID readers54-58 and a plurality of RFID tags 60-70. The RFID system 50 may beseparate system from that of FIG. 1 and/or may overlay the system ofFIG. 1 such that the plurality of communication devices 18-30 include anRFID reader 54-58 and/or an RFID tag 60-70. The RFID tags 60-70 may eachbe associated with a particular object for a variety of purposesincluding, but not limited to, tracking inventory, tracking status,location determination, assembly progress, et cetera.

Each RFID reader 54-58 wirelessly communicates with one or more RFIDtags 60-70 within its coverage area. For example, RFID reader 54 mayhave RFID tags 60 and 62 within its coverage area, while RFID reader 56has RFID tags 64 and 66, and RFID reader 58 has RFID tags 88 and 70within its coverage area. The RF communication scheme between the RFIDreaders 54-58 and RFID tags 60-70 may be a back scatter near fieldand/or far field technique whereby the RFID readers 54-58 provide energyto the RFID tags via an RF signal. The RFID tags derive power from theRF signal and respond on the same RF carrier frequency with therequested data.

In this manner, the RFID readers 54-58 collect data as may be requestedfrom the communication device, the computer, and/or the server 52 fromeach of the RFID tags 60-70 within its coverage area. The collected datais then conveyed to the communication device, the computer, and/or theserver 52 via the wired or wireless connection 72 and/or via thepeer-to-peer communication 74. In addition, and/or in the alternative,communication device, the computer, and/or the server 52 may providedata to one or more of the RFID tags 60-70 via the associated RFIDreader 54-58. Such downloaded information is application dependent andmay vary greatly. Upon receiving the downloaded data, the RFID tag wouldstore the data in a non-volatile memory.

As indicated above, the RFID readers 54-58 may optionally communicate ona peer-to-peer basis such that each RFID reader does not need a separatewired or wireless connection 72 to the communication device, thecomputer, and/or the server 52. For example, RFID reader 54 and RFIDreader 56 may communicate on a peer-to-peer basis utilizing a backscatter technique, a wireless LAN technique, and/or any other wirelesscommunication technique. In this instance, RFID reader 66 may notinclude a wired or wireless connection 72 to the communication device,the computer, and/or the server 52. Communications between RFID reader56 and the communication device, the computer, and/or the server 52 areconveyed through RFID reader 54 and the wired or wireless connection 72,which may be any one of a plurality of wired standards (e.g., Ethernet,fire wire, et cetera) and/or wireless communication standards (e.g.,IEEE 802.11x, Bluetooth, et cetera).

As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, the RFID system ofFIG. 2 may be expanded to include a multitude of RFID readers 54-58distributed throughout a desired location (for example, a building,office site, et cetera) where the RFID tags may be associated withequipment, inventory, personnel, et cetera. Note that the communicationdevice, the computer, and/or the server 52 may be coupled to anotherserver and/or network connection to provide wide area network coverage.Further note that the carrier frequency of the wireless communicationbetween the RFID readers 54-58 and RFID tags 60-70 may range from about10 MHz to 60 GHz.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a device 80 thatincludes a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 84, 86, and an RF buscontroller 88. The device 80 may be any type of electronic apparatusthat includes ICs. For example, the device may be a cellular telephone,personal computer, lap top computer, access point, base station,personal digital assistant, monitor, video game console, video gamecontroller, audio equipment, audio/video equipment, a kitchen appliance,automobile electronics, etc. Accordingly, the ICs 84, 86 include circuitmodules to provide at least some of the functionality of the device. Forexample, the ICs 84, 86 may be, and/or include, a microprocessor,microcontroller, digital signal processor, programmable logic circuit,memory, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), analog todigital converter (ADC), digital to analog converter (DAC), digitallogic circuitry, analog circuitry, graphics processor, etc.

In this embodiment, IC 84 includes a first radio frequency (RF) bustransceiver 108 and IC 86 includes a second RF bus transceiver 110 tosupport intra-device RF communications 90 there between. Theintra-device RF communications 90 may be RF data communications, RFinstruction communications, RF control signal communications, and/or RFinput/output communications. For example, data, control, operationalinstructions, and/or input/output signals (e.g., analog input signals,analog output signals, digital input signals, digital output signals)that are traditionally conveyed between ICs via traces on a printedcircuit board are, in device 80, transmitted via the intra-device RFcommunications 90.

The intra-device RF communications 90 may also include operating systemlevel communications and application level communications. The operatingsystem level communications are communications that correspond toresource management of the device 80, loading and executing applications(e.g., a program or algorithm), multitasking of applications, protectionbetween applications, device start-up, interfacing with a user of thedevice 80, etc. The application level communications are communicationsthat correspond to the data conveyed, operational instructions conveyed,and/or control signals conveyed during execution of an application.

The RF bus controller 88 is coupled to control the intra-device RFcommunications 90 between the first and second RF bus transceivers 108,110. The RF bus controller 88 may be a separate IC or it may be includedin one of the ICs 84, 86. The functionality of the RF bus controller 88will be described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 11, 20, 22,and 48-55.

FIGS. 4-6 are diagrams of embodiments of intra-device wirelesscommunications 90 being conveyed over different types of RFcommunication paths. In these embodiments, the antenna of each IC 84, 86is shown external to the IC for ease of illustration, but, in most ICsembodiments, the antenna will be in the IC.

FIG. 4 illustrates the device 80 further including a supportingsubstrate 94 that supports the ICs 84, 86. In this embodiment, theintra-device RF communications 90 occur over a free-space RFcommunication path 96. In other words, the intra-device RFcommunications 90 are conveyed via the air.

FIG. 5 illustrates the device 80 having the supporting substrate 94including a waveguide RF communication path 98. In this embodiment, theintra-device RF communications 90 occur via the waveguide RFcommunication path 98. The waveguide RF communication path 98 may beformed in a micro-electromechanical (MEM) area of the supportingsubstrate 94. The use of a MEM area to provide an RF bus structure tosupport intra-device RF communications 90 (which includes inter-IC RFcommunications and/or intra-IC RF communications) is described ingreater detail with reference to FIGS. 36-46.

FIG. 5 illustrates the device 80 having the supporting substrate 94including a plurality of dielectric layers 101, 102. In this embodiment,the dielectric layers 101 and 102 have different dielectric propertiessuch that the border between dielectric layer 101 and dielectric layer102 reflect the RF signals transceived by the ICs 84, 86. In thismanner, dielectric layer 101 provides a dielectric RF communication path100 for the intra-device RF communications 90.

In an embodiment of device 80, the intra-device RF communications 90 mayoccur over the free-space RF communication path 96, the waveguide RFcommunication path 98, and/or the dielectric RF communication path 100.In this embodiment, the RF bus controller 88 further functions to selectone of the waveguide RF communication path 98, the dielectric layer RFcommunication path 100, or the free space RF communication path 96 basedon at least one aspect of one of the intra-device RF communications. Forexample, high data rate and/or non-error tolerant communications (e.g.,operating system level communications) may occur over the waveguide RFcommunication path 98, while lower data rate and/or error tolerantcommunications (e.g., some portions of application level communications)may occur over the free-space RF communication path 96. As anotherexample, the aspect on which the RF communication path is selected maybe user defined, operating system level defined, and/or pre-programmedinto the device. As yet another example, the aspect may correspond tothe IC initiating an intra-device RF communication and/or the ICreceiving it. As a further example, the aspect may correspond to thenumber of intra-device RF communications 90 an IC currently has inprogress.

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes ICs 84, 86 and the RF bus controller 88. In thisembodiment, IC 84 includes a processing module 104 and the RF bustransceiver 108 and IC 86 includes an asynchronous circuit module 106and the RF bus transceiver 110. The processing module 104 may be asingle processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such aprocessing device may be a microprocessor, micro-controller, digitalsignal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, fieldprogrammable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logiccircuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device thatmanipulates signals (analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of thecircuitry and/or operational instructions. The processing module mayhave an associated memory and/or memory element, which may be a singlememory device, a plurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitryof the processing module. Such a memory device may be a read-onlymemory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory,static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or anydevice that stores digital information. Note that when the processingmodule implements one or more of its functions via a state machine,analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memoryand/or memory element storing the corresponding operational instructionsmay be embedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising thestate machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry.

The asynchronous circuit module 106 may be any type of circuit and/orprogram that provides data to and/or receives data from the processingmodule 104 in an asynchronous manner that is unpredictable to theprocessing module 106. Such a circuit and/or program may be a userinterface input/output (I/O), email application, security application,peripheral I/O circuit, etc.

In this embodiment, the asynchronous circuit module 106 provides an RFinterrupt request communication 112 via the RF bus transceiver 110 tothe RF bus transceiver 108 coupled to the processing module 104. The RFinterrupt request communication 112 includes an interrupt request thatis requesting the processing module 104 to stop what it is currentlydoing and execute software to process the asynchronous circuit module'srequest. In response to receiving and/or commencing execution of theinterrupt request, the processing module 104 generates an interruptacknowledgement. The RF bus transceiver 108 converts the interruptacknowledgement into an RF interrupt acknowledgement communication 114.

The RF bus transceiver 110 receives the RF interrupt acknowledgementcommunication 114 and recaptures the interrupt acknowledgementtherefrom. The RF bus transceiver 110 provides the interruptacknowledgement to the asynchronous circuit module 106.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes the ICs 84, 86 and the RF bus controller 88. In thisembodiment, the RF bus controller 88 receives RF bus requests 122 fromthe ICs 84, 86 via a wireline serial link 120. The RF bus controller 88processes the RF bus requests 122 to produce RF bus grants 124, whichare provided to the ICs 84, 86 via the wireline serial link 120. Assuch, for the ICs 84, 86 to access an RF bus to support the intra-deviceRF communications 90, the ICs 84, 86 communicate with the RF buscontroller 88 via the wireline serial link 120.

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes the ICs 84, 86 and the RF bus controller 88. In thisembodiment, the RF bus controller 88 receives RF bus requests 122 fromthe ICs 84, 86 via a wireless interface. The RF bus controller 88processes the RF bus requests 122 to produce RF bus grants 124, whichare provided to the ICs 84, 86 via the wireless interface. The RF busrequest 122 and the RF bus grant 124 may be transceived at one carrierfrequency while the intra-device RF communications 90 may be transceivedat a different carrier frequency or different carrier frequencies.Alternatively, the RF bus request 122 and the RF bus grant 124 may betransceived at the carrier frequency or frequencies as the intra-deviceRF communications 90.

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes the ICs 84, 86 and the RF bus controller 88. In thisembodiment, the RF bus controller 88 includes an RF bus transceiver 130,IC 84 includes a circuit module 132 and the RF bus transceiver 108, andIC 86 includes a circuit module 134 and the RF bus transceiver 110. Thecircuit modules 132, 134 may be any type of digital circuit, analogcircuit, logic circuit, and/or processing circuit. For example, one ofthe circuit modules 132, 134 may be, but is not limited to, amicroprocessor, a component of a microprocessor, cache memory, read onlymemory, random access memory, programmable logic, digital signalprocessor, logic gate, amplifier, multiplier, adder, multiplexor, etc.

In this embodiment, the inter-device RF communication 90, RF busrequests 122, and the RF bus grants 124 occur within the same frequencyspectrum. To minimize interference between the obtaining access to theRF bus and using the RF bus for the inter-device RF communications 90,the bus controller 88 controls access to the frequency spectrum byallocating at least one communication slot per frame to the wirelessinterface and allocating at least one other communication slot per framefor the intra-device RF communications. The communication slots may betime division multiple access (TDMA) slots within a TDMA frame,frequency division multiple access (FDMA) slots of an FDMA frame, and/orcode division multiple access (CDMA) slots of a CDMA frame. Note that inthis embodiment, frame is equivalent to a packet.

FIG. 11 is a diagram of an example of a frame of obtaining access to anRF Bus and using the RF bus by the embodiment of FIG. 10. The frame, orpacket, includes a controller inquiry field 140, an IC response controlfield or fields 142, a resource allocation field or fields 144, and adata field or fields 146. The RF bus controller uses the controllerinquiry field 140 to determine whether one or more ICs have an up-comingneed to access the RF bus. In one embodiment, the RF bus controller 88addresses a single IC per frame as to whether the IC has an up-comingneed for the RF bus. In another embodiment, the RF bus controller 88addresses two or more ICs as to whether they have an up-coming need forthe RF bus. The RF bus controller 88 may be use a polling mechanism toaddress the ICs, which indicates how and when to response to the pollinginquiry.

The ICs 84, 86 respond to the RF bus controller's query in the ICresponse control field or fields 142. In one embodiment, the ICs share asingle IC response control field using a carrier sense multiple access(CSMA) with collision avoidance technique, using pre-assigned sub-slots,using a round robin technique, using a poll-respond technique, etc. Inanother embodiment, the ICs have their own IC response control field142. In either embodiment, the ICs 84, 86 response includes anindication of whether it has data to convey via the RF bus, how muchdata to convey, the nature of the data (e.g., application data,application instructions, operating system level data and/orinstructions, etc.), the target or targets of the data, a priority levelof the requestor, a priority level of the data, data integrityrequirements, and/or any other information relating to the conveyance ofthe data via the RF bus.

The RF bus controller 88 uses the resource allocation field or fields144 to grant access to the RF bus to one or more ICs 84, 86. In oneembodiment, the RF bus controller 88 uses a single field to respond toone or more ICs. In another embodiment, the RF bus controller 88responds to the ICs in separate resource allocation fields 144. Ineither embodiment, the RF bus grant 144 indicates when, how, and for howlong the IC has access to the RF bus during the one or more data fields146. Various embodiments of requesting and obtaining access to the RFbus and transceiving via the RF bus will be described in greater detailwith reference to FIGS. 49-64.

FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes the ICs 84, 86 and the RF bus controller 88. In thisembodiment, the RF bus controller 88 includes an RF bus transceiver 130.IC 84 includes the circuit module 132 the RF bus transceiver 108, and anRF transceiver 160. IC 86 includes the circuit module 134, the RF bustransceiver 110, and an RF transceiver 152.

In this embodiment, the inter-device RF communications 90 occur in adifferent frequency spectrum than the RF bus requests 122 and the RF busgrants 124. As such, they can occur simultaneously with minimalinterference. In this manner, the RF bus requests 122 and RF bus grants124 may be communicated using a CSMA with collision avoidance technique,a poll-response technique, allocated time slots of a TDMA frame,allocated frequency slots of an FDMA frame, and/or allocated code slotsof a CDMA frame in one frequency spectrum or using one carrier frequencyand the inter-device RF communications 90 may use a CSMA with collisionavoidance technique, a poll-response technique, allocated time slots ofa TDMA frame, allocated frequency slots of an FDMA frame, and/orallocated code slots of a CDMA frame in another frequency spectrum orusing another carrier frequency.

FIG. 13 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 160, 162, theRF bus controller 88, and an RF bus 190. Each of the ICs 160, 162includes a plurality of circuit modules 170-176 and each of the circuitmodules 170-176 includes a radio frequency (RF) bus transceiver 180-186.The circuit modules 170-176 may be any type of digital circuit, analogcircuit, logic circuit, and/or processing circuit that can beimplemented on an IC. For example, one of the circuit modules 170-176may be, but is not limited to, a microprocessor, a component of amicroprocessor, cache memory, read only memory, random access memory,programmable logic, digital signal processor, logic gate, amplifier,multiplier, adder, multiplexor, etc.

In this embodiment, the RF bus controller 88, which may be a separate ICor contained with one of the ICs 160-162, controls intra-IC RFcommunications 192 between circuit modules 170-176 of different ICs 160,162 and controls inter-IC RF communications 194 between circuit modules170-172 or 174-176 of the same IC. In this manner, at least some of thecommunication between ICs and between circuit modules of an IC is donewirelessly via the RF bus transceivers 180-186. Note that the circuitmodules 170-172 may also be inter-coupled with one or more traces withinthe IC 160, the circuit modules 174-176 may also be inter-coupled withone or more traces within the IC 162, and that IC 160 may be coupled toIC 162 via one or more traces on a supporting substrate (e.g., a printedcircuit board).

The intra-IC RF communications 192 and the inter-IC RF communications194 may be RF data communications, RF instruction communications, RFcontrol signal communications, and/or RF input/output communications.For example, data, control, operational instructions, and/orinput/output communications (e.g., analog input signals, analog outputsignals, digital input signals, digital output signals) that aretraditionally conveyed between ICs via traces on a printed circuit boardare at least partially transmitted by the RF bus transceivers 180-186via the RF bus 190.

The intra-IC RF communications 192 and/or the inter-IC RF communications194 may also include operating system level communications andapplication level communications. The operating system levelcommunications are communications that correspond to resource managementof the device 80, loading and executing applications (e.g., a program oralgorithm), multitasking of applications, protection betweenapplications, device start-up, interfacing with a user of the device,etc. The application level communications are communications thatcorrespond to the data conveyed, operational instructions conveyed,and/or control signals conveyed during execution of an application.

The RF bus 190 may be one or more of a free-space RF communication path96, a waveguide RF communication path 98, and/or a dielectric RFcommunication path 100. For example, the RF bus 190 may include at leastone data RF bus, at least one instruction RF bus, and at least onecontrol RF bus for intra-IC RF communications 192 and the inter-IC RFcommunications 194. In this example, intra-IC RF data communications 192may occur over a free-space RF communication path 96, while the intra-ICRF instruction and/or control communications 192 may occur over awaveguide RF communication path 98 and/or a dielectric RF communicationpath 100 within the IC 160 or 162. Further, inter-IC RF datacommunications 194 may occur over a free-space RF communication path 96,while the intra-IC RF instruction and/or control communications 194 mayoccur over a waveguide RF communication path 98 and/or a dielectric RFcommunication path 100 within a supporting substrate of the ICs 160-162.As an alternative example, the inter- and intra-IC communications192-194 may occur over multiple waveguide RF communication paths,multiple dielectric RF communication paths, and/or multiple free-spaceRF communication paths (e.g., use different carrier frequencies,distributed frequency patterns, TDMA, FDMA, CDMA, etc.).

FIG. 14 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 160, 162, theRF bus controller 88, a plurality of inter-IC RF buses 196, and anintra-IC RF bus 198. Each of the ICs 160, 162 includes a plurality ofcircuit modules 170-176 and a serial interface module 200-202. Each ofthe circuit modules 170-176 includes a radio frequency (RF) bustransceiver 180-186.

In this embodiment, the RF bus controller 88 is coupled to the ICs160-162 via a wireline serial link 204 to control access to the inter-ICRF buses 196 and to the intra-IC RF bus 198. For instance, when acircuit module 170-176 has data to transmit to another circuit module170-176 of the same IC or of a different IC, the requesting circuitmodule 170-176 provides an RF bus request to the RF bus controller 88via the wireline serial link 204 and the corresponding serial interfacemodule 200-202. The serial link 204 and the corresponding serialinterface modules 200-202 may be a standardized protocol, a de-factostandard protocol, or a proprietary protocol. For example, the seriallink 204 may be a universal serial bus (USB), an IEEE 1394 link, an I2Clink, an I2S link, etc.

The RF bus controller 88 processes the RF bus request, as will bedescribed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 49-55, to determineat least one of whether the requestor needs access to one of theplurality of inter-IC RF buses 196 or to the intra-IC RF bus 198, howmuch data it has to send, the type of the data, the location of thetarget circuit module(s), the priority of the requestor, the priority ofthe data, etc. When the RF bus controller 88 has determined how and whenthe requestor is to access the RF bus 196 and/or 198, the RF buscontroller 88 provides an RF bus grant to the requestor via the wirelinelink 204.

As shown, the intra-IC RF bus 198 supports intra-IC RF communications194 and the plurality of inter-IC RF buses 196 support correspondinginter-IC RF communications 192. In this manner, multiple inter-IC RFcommunications 192 may be simultaneously occurring and may also occursimultaneously with one or more intra-IC RF communications 194.

FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 160, 162, theRF bus controller 88, a plurality of inter-IC RF buses 196, and anintra-IC RF bus 198. Each of the ICs 160, 162 includes a plurality ofcircuit modules 170-176 and an RF transceiver 210-212. Each of thecircuit modules 170-176 includes a radio frequency (RF) bus transceiver180-186 and the RF bus controller 88 includes the RF bus transceiver130.

In this embodiment, the RF bus controller 88 is coupled to the ICs160-162 via a wireless link 214 to control access to the inter-IC RFbuses 196 and to the intra-IC RF bus 198. For instance, when a circuitmodule 170-176 has data to transmit to another circuit module 170-176 ofthe same IC or of a different IC, the requesting circuit module 170-176provides an RF bus request to the RF bus controller 88 via the wirelesslink 214 and the RF transceiver 210-212. The wireless link 214 and thecorresponding RF transceivers 210-212 may be a standardized protocol, ade-facto standard protocol, or a proprietary protocol.

The RF bus controller 88 processes the RF bus request, as will bedescribed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 49-55, to determineat least one of whether the requestor needs access to one of theplurality of inter-IC RF buses 196 or to the intra-IC RF bus 198, howmuch data it has to send, the type of the data, the location of thetarget circuit module(s), the priority of the requestor, the priority ofthe data, etc. When the RF bus controller 88 has determined how and whenthe requestor is to access the RF bus 196 and/or 198, the RF buscontroller 88 provides an RF bus grant to the requestor via the wirelesslink 214.

In one embodiment, the RF bus transceiver 130 operates within a firstfrequency band and the intra-IC RF communications 192 and the inter-ICRF communications 194 occur within the first frequency band. In thisinstance, the RF bus controller 88 allocates at least one communicationslot to the wireless interface link 214, allocates at least one othercommunication slot for the intra-IC RF communications 192, and allocatesat least another communication slot for the inter-IC RF communications194. The communication slots may be time division multiple access (TDMA)slots, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) slot, and/or codedivision multiple access (CDMA) slots.

In another embodiment, the RF bus transceiver 130 operates within afirst frequency band, the intra-IC RF communications 192 occur withinthe first frequency band, and the inter-IC RF communications 194 occurwithin a second frequency band. In this instance, the RF bus controller88 allocates at least one communication slot in the first frequency bandto the wireless link 214 and allocates at least one other communicationslot in the first frequency band for the intra-IC RF communications 192.The communication slots may be time division multiple access (TDMA)slots, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) slot, and/or codedivision multiple access (CDMA) slots.

In another embodiment, the RF bus transceiver 130 operates within afirst frequency band, the inter-IC RF communications 194 occur withinthe second frequency band, and the intra-IC RF communications 192 occurwithin the frequency band. In this instance, the RF bus controller 88allocates at least one communication slot in the second frequency bandto the wireless link 214 and allocates at least one other communicationslot in the second frequency band for the inter-IC RF communications194. The communication slots may be time division multiple access (TDMA)slots, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) slot, and/or codedivision multiple access (CDMA) slots.

In another embodiment, the RF bus transceiver 130 operates within afirst frequency band, the intra-IC RF communications 192 occur withinthe second frequency band, and the inter-IC RF communications 194 occurwithin a third frequency band. With the different types of communication(e.g., RF bus access, inter-IC, and intra-IC) occurring within differentfrequency bands, the different types of communication may occursimultaneously with minimal interference from each other.

FIG. 16 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the device80 that includes the RF bus controller 88, a processing core 220, amemory system 222, a peripheral interface module 224, a plurality ofperipheral circuits 228-230, an RF memory bus 242, and an RF I/O bus244. Each of the processing core 220, the memory system 222, theperipheral interface module 224, and the plurality of peripheralcircuits 228-230 includes one or more RF bus transceivers 232-240. Theplurality of peripheral circuits 228-230 includes two or more of a harddisk drive, a compact disk (CD) drive, a digital video disk (DVD) drive,a video card, an audio card, a wireline network card, a wireless networkcard, a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) interface and/orsecurity identification module (SIM) card, a USB interface, a displayinterface, a secure digital input/output (SDIO) interface and/or securedigital (SD) card or multi-media card (MMC), a coprocessor interfaceand/or coprocessor, a wireless local area network (WLAN) interfaceand/or WLAN transceiver, a Bluetooth interface and/or Bluetoothtransceiver, a frequency modulation (FM) interface and/or FM tuner, akeyboard interface and/or keyboard, a speaker interface and/or aspeaker, a microphone interface and/or a microphone, a globalpositioning system (GPS) interface and/or a GPS receiver, a camerainterface and/or an image sensor, a camcorder interface and/or a videosensor, a television (TV) interface and/or a TV tuner, a UniversalAsynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART) interface, a Serial PeripheralInterface (SPI) interface, a pulse code modulation (PCM) interface, etc.

In this embodiment, the peripheral interface module 224 includes a firstRF bus transceiver 236 and a second RF bus transceiver 238. The first RFbus transceiver 236 communicates via the RF memory bus 242 and thesecond RF bus transceiver communicates via the RF I/O bus 244. In thisinstance, the peripheral interface module 224 functions as an interfacefor one of the plurality of peripheral circuits 228-230 to communicatewith the processing core 220 and/or the memory system 222 via the RFmemory bus 242.

The RF bus controller 88, which may be coupled to the processing core220, the memory system 222 and the peripheral interface module 224 via awireline serial link and/or a wireless link, controls access to the RFinput/output bus 244 among the plurality of peripheral circuits 228-230and the peripheral interface module 224 and controls access to the RFmemory bus 242 among the processing core 220, the memory system 222, andthe peripheral interface module 224. Note that the RF input/output bus244 supports at least one of: RF peripheral data communications, RFperipheral instruction communications, and RF peripheral control signalcommunications, where the RF peripheral control signal communicationsincludes an RF interrupt request communication, and/or an RF interruptacknowledgement communication.

The RF memory bus 242 supports at least one of: RF memory datacommunications, RF memory instruction communications, and RF memorycontrol signal communications. The RF memory bus may further support RFoperating system level communications and RF application levelcommunications.

FIG. 17 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFtransceiver device that includes a processing module 250, memory 252, abaseband processing module 254, an RF section 256, the RF bus controller88 and an RF bus 262. The processing module 250 includes a processingmodule RF bus transceiver 258 and the memory includes a memory RF bustransceiver 260. The processing module 250 and the baseband processingmodule 254 may be the same processing module or different processingmodules, where a processing module may be a single processing device ora plurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be amicroprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor,microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array,programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals(analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of the circuitry and/oroperational instructions. The processing module may have an associatedmemory and/or memory element (e.g., memory 252), which may be a singlememory device, a plurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitryof the processing module. Such a memory device may be a read-onlymemory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory,static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or anydevice that stores digital information. Note that when the processingmodule implements one or more of its functions via a state machine,analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memoryand/or memory element storing the corresponding operational instructionsmay be embedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising thestate machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry. Further note that, the memory element stores, and theprocessing module executes, hard coded and/or operational instructionscorresponding to at least some of the steps and/or functions illustratedin FIGS. 17-25.

The baseband processing module 254 is coupled to convert outbound data264 into an outbound symbol stream 266. This may be done in accordancewith one or more wireless communication protocols including, but notlimited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, GSM, RFID, CDMA, Enhanced Data ratesfor GSM Evolution (EDGE), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), newand/or current versions thereof, modifications thereof, extensionsthereof, combinations thereof, new WLAN standards, new cellular voiceand/or data standards, and/or new wireless personal area networks(WPAN).

The RF section 256 converts the outbound symbol stream 266 into anoutbound RF signal 268. In an embodiment, the RF section 256 includes adigital to analog conversion module, an up-conversion module, and apower amplifier module. The digital to analog conversion module convertsthe outbound symbol stream 266 into an analog symbol stream. Theup-conversion module, which may be a direct conversion module or asuperheterodyne module, mixes the analog symbol stream with a localoscillation to produce an up-converted signal. The power amplifiermodule amplifies the up-converted signal to produce the outbound RFsignal 268. In another embodiment, the up-conversion module modulatesphase of the local oscillation based on phase information of the analogsymbol stream to produce the up-converted signal. The power amplifiermodule amplifies the up-converted signal based on a constant amplifierfactor or based on amplitude modulation information of the analog symbolstream to produce the outbound RF signal 268.

The RF section 256 is also coupled to and to convert an inbound RFsignal 270 into an inbound symbol stream 272. In one embodiment, the RFsection 256 includes a low noise amplifier module, a down-conversionmodule, and an analog to digital conversion module. The low noiseamplifier module amplifies the inbound RF signal 270 to produce anamplified inbound RF signal. The down conversion module, which may adirection conversion module or a superheterodyne module, mixes theamplified inbound RF signal with a local oscillation to produce ananalog inbound symbol stream. The analog to digital conversion moduleconverts the analog inbound symbol stream into the inbound symbol stream272.

The baseband processing module 254 is also coupled to convert theinbound symbol stream 272 into inbound data 274. This may be done inaccordance with one or more wireless communication protocols including,but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, GSM, RFID, CDMA, EnhancedData rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), General Packet Radio Service(GPRS), new and/or current versions thereof, modifications thereof,extensions thereof, combinations thereof, new WLAN standards, newcellular voice and/or data standards, and/or new wireless personal areanetworks (WPAN). Note that the inbound and outbound data 264, 274 may bevoice signals, audio signals, video signals, text signals, graphicssignals, short messaging signals, cellular data signals, etc.

The RF bus controller 88 is coupled to control access to the RF bus 262,which may include one or more waveguide RF communication paths, one ormore dielectric RF communication paths, and/or one or more free-space RFcommunication paths. In one embodiment, the processing module 250generates the outbound data 264, which is converted into an RF busoutbound data signal 278 by the RF bus transceiver 258. The RF buscontroller 88 controls conveyance of the RF bus outbound data signal 278on the RF bus 262. In another embodiment, the memory 252 provides theoutbound data 264, which is converted into the RF bus outbound datasignal 278 by the RF bus transceiver 260.

The RF bus controller 88 further functions to control access to the RFbus 262 for providing the inbound data 274 as an RF bus inbound datasignal 276 to the processing module RF bus transceiver 258 or to thememory RF bus transceiver 260. Note that in an embodiment of the RFtransceiver device, the baseband processing module 254 is coupled to theRF section 256 via a wireless digital-RF interface.

FIG. 18 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFtransceiver device that includes a processing module 250, memory 252, abaseband processing module 254, an RF section 256, the RF bus controller88 and an RF bus 262. The processing module 250 includes a processingmodule RF bus transceiver 258 and the memory includes a memory RF bustransceiver 260. In this embodiment, the baseband processing module 254includes an RF bus transceiver 280, which converts the inbound data 274into the RF bus inbound data signal 276 and converts the RF bus outbounddata signal 278 into the outbound data 264.

FIG. 19 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFtransceiver device that includes a processing module 250, memory 252, abaseband processing module 254, an RF section 256, the RF bus controller88 and an RF bus 262. The processing module 250 includes a processingmodule RF bus transceiver 258 and the memory includes a memory RF bustransceiver 260. In this embodiment, the RF section 256 receives the RFbus outbound data signal 278 and converts it into a baseband (BB) ornear baseband outbound data signal 290, which has a carrier frequency of0 Hz to a few MHz. Note that the RF section 256 may be coupled tomultiple antennas (as shown) or may be coupled to a single antenna.

The baseband processing module 254 converts the baseband or nearbaseband outbound data signal 290 into the outbound data 264 inaccordance with a standardized wireless communication protocol (e.g.,GSM, EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, IEEE 802.11 Bluetooth), a modified standardwireless communication protocol (e.g., a modified version of GSM, EDGE,GPRS, CDMA, IEEE 802.11 Bluetooth), or a proprietary wirelesscommunication protocol (e.g., non-return to zero encode/decode, bi-phaseencode/decode). The baseband processing module 254 then converts theoutbound data 264 into the outbound symbol stream 266, which isconverted into the outbound RF signal 268 by the RF section 256.

The RF section 256 receives the inbound RF signal 270 and converts itinto the inbound symbol stream 272. The baseband processing module 254converts the inbound symbol stream 272 into the inbound data 274 andthen converts the inbound data 274 into a baseband or near basebandinbound data signal 292. The RF section 256 converts the baseband ornear baseband inbound data signal 292 into the RF bus inbound datasignal 276. Note that in an embodiment the baseband processing moduleconverts the outbound data 264 into the outbound symbol stream 266 andconverts the inbound symbol stream 272 into the inbound data 274 inaccordance with one or more of a wireless personal area network (WPAN)protocol (e.g., Bluetooth), a wireless local area network (WLAN)protocol (e.g., IEEE 802.11), a cellular telephone voice protocol (e.g.,GSM, CDMA), a cellular telephone data protocol (e.g., EDGE, GPRS), anaudio broadcast protocol (e.g., AM/FM radio), and a video broadcastprotocol (e.g., television).

In the various embodiments of an RF transceiver device as discussed withreference to FIGS. 17-19, the inbound and outbound RF signals 268 and270 may be in the same frequency band or a different frequency band thanthe RF bus inbound and outbound data signals 276 and 278. For example,the inbound and outbound RF signals 268 and 270 may have a carrierfrequency in a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz frequency band while the RF bus inboundand outbound data signals 276 and 278 may have a carrier frequency in a60 GHz frequency band. As another example, the inbound and outbound RFsignals 268 and 270 and the RF bus inbound and outbound data signals 276and 278 may have a carrier frequency in a 60 GHz frequency band. Whenthe signals 268, 270, 276, and 278 are in the same frequency band, thefrequency band may be shared to minimize interference between thedifferent signals.

FIG. 20 is a diagram of an example of a frame of an RF transceiverdevice wireless communication that shares a frequency band and minimizesinterference between the different signals 268, 270, 276, and 278. Inthis example, the frame includes an inbound RF signal slot 300, an RFbus inbound data signal slot 302, an RF bus outbound data signal 304,and an outbound RF signal 306. The slots 300-306 may be TDMA slots, CDMAslots, or FDMA slots, which may be reallocated on a frame by frame basisby the RF bus controller 88. For example, the processing module 250and/or the baseband processing module 254 may request one or more slotsfrom the RF bus controller 88 for the inbound RF signal 270, theoutbound RF signal 268, the RF bus inbound data signal 276, and/or theRF bus outbound data signal 278. Note that the frame may include anadditional slot for bus access communications if the RF bus requests andRF bus grants are communicated wirelessly within the same frequency bandas the signals 268, 270, 276, and 278.

FIG. 21 is a logic diagram of an embodiment of a method of resourceallocation for an intra-device wireless communication that begins atstep 310 where the processing module 250 and/or the baseband processingmodule 254 determine a potential overlapping of one of the RF businbound data signal 276 and the RF bus outbound data signal 278 with oneof the inbound RF signal 270 and the outbound RF signal 268. In thisembodiment, the signals 268, 270, 276, and 278 may be transmitted and/orreceived at any time without a structured ordering of the signals (inother words, the signals do not have allocated slots). If a potentialoverlap is not detected (i.e., the transmission or reception of onesignal will not interfere with the transmission or reception of anothersignal), the process proceeds to step 312 where the RF bus communication(e.g., the RF bus inbound or outbound data signal 276 or 278) or theinbound or outbound RF signal 270 or 268 is transmitted or received.

If a potential overlap is detected, the process proceeds to step 314where the frequency and/or phase of the RF bus inbound data signal 276and/or of the RF bus outbound data signal 278 is adjusted. For example,if a potential overlap is detected, the phase of the RF buscommunications (e.g., signals 276 or 278) may be adjusted to beorthogonal with the inbound or outbound RF signals 270 or 268 therebysubstantially reducing the received signal strength of the orthogonalsignal. As another example, the carrier frequency may be adjusted by afrequency offset such that it has a different carrier frequency than theinbound or outbound RF signal 270 or 268.

The process then proceeds to step 316 where blocking of the inbound RFsignal 270 or the outbound RF signal 268 for the RF bus communication isenabled. As such, by adjusting the phase and/or frequency of the RF buscommunication, the inbound or outbound RF signal 270 or 268 may betreated as an interferer with respect to the RF bus communications thatcan be substantially blocked. Thus, if a potential overlap exists, theRF bus communications are adjusted such that they experience acceptablelevels of interference from the inbound or outbound RF signals.

FIG. 22 is a diagram of another example of a frame of an RF transceiverdevice wireless communication that shares a frequency band and minimizesinterference between the different signals 268, 270, 276, and 278. Inthis example, the frame includes the inbound RF signal slot 300; anoutbound RF signal, an RF bus inbound data signal, or composite signalslot 320, and the RF bus outbound data signal 304. The slots 300, 320,and 304 may be TDMA slots, CDMA slots, or FDMA slots, which may bereallocated on a frame by frame basis by the RF bus controller 88. Notethat the frame may include an additional slot for bus accesscommunications if the RF bus requests and RF bus grants are communicatedwirelessly within the same frequency band as the signals 268, 270, 276,and 278.

In this example, the baseband processing module 254 processes the datafor the outbound RF signal 268 and the RF bus inbound data signal 276.As such, the baseband processing module 254 has knowledge of whichsignal it is processing and thus can request allocation of a resourcefor the appropriate signal (e.g., 268 or 276). In addition, the basebandprocessing module 254 may simultaneously process the data for theoutbound RF signal 268 and the RF bus inbound data signal 276 via acomposite signal.

FIG. 23 is a diagram of an example of mapping data of an RF transceiverdevice wireless communication into a composite signal. In this example,the baseband processing module 254 combines bits 322 of the outbounddata 264 and bits 324 of the inbound data 274 to produce composite data.In this example, the bits 322 of the outbound data 264 are leastsignificant bits of the composite data and the bits 324 of the inbounddata 274 are most significant bits of the composite data. The basebandprocessing module then encodes the composite data to produce encodeddata; interleaves the encoded data to produce interleaved data; maps theinterleaved data to produce mapped data; and converts the mapped datafrom the frequency domain to the time domain to produce a baseband ornear baseband composite outbound data signal. The RF section 256converts the baseband or near baseband composite outbound data signalinto a composite outbound RF signal, wherein the composite outbound RFsignal includes the outbound RF signal 268 and the RF bus inbound datasignal 276.

The RF bus transceiver 258 or 260 receives the composite outbound RFsignal, converts it into the baseband or near baseband compositeoutbound data signal. A baseband processing module within the RF bustransceiver 258 or 260 converts the baseband or near baseband compositeoutbound data signal from the time domain to the frequency domain toproduce the mapped data; demaps the mapped data to produce interleaveddata; deinterleaves the interleaved data to produce encoded data; anddecodes the encoded data to produce the inbound data 274 and outbounddata 264. The RF bus transceiver 258 or 260 is programmed to ignore theoutbound data 264 bits of the composite data such that the resultingrecovered data from the composite outbound RF signal is the inbound data274.

An RF transceiver within the target of the outbound RF signal 268 treatsthe composite outbound RF signal as a lower mapped rate outbound RFsignal. As shown, the composite data is mapped using a 16 QAM(quadrature amplitude mapping scheme). A first quadrant has mapped bitsof 0000, 0001, 0010, and 0011; a second quadrant has mapped bits of0100, 0101, 0110, and 0111; a third quadrant has mapped bits of 1100,1101, 1110, and 1111; and a fourth quadrant has mapped bits of 1000,1001, 1010, and 1011. If the RF transceiver within the target uses aQPSK (quadrature phase shift keying), if the composite signal is withinthe first quadrant, the RF transceiver will interpret this as a mappedvalue of 00, if the composite signal is within the second quadrant, theRF transceiver will interpret this as a mapped value of 01, if thecomposite signal is within the third quadrant, the RF transceiver willinterpret this as a mapped value of 11, and if the composite signal iswithin the fourth quadrant, the RF transceiver will interpret this as amapped value of 10.

In general, since the RF bus transceivers should experiencesignificantly greater signal integrity than the RF transceiver withinthe target, the RF bus transceivers can operate at a higher mapping ratethan the RF transceiver within the target. As such, the basebandprocessing module may convert the bits 322 of the outbound data 264 andthe bits 324 of the inbound data 274 into the baseband or near basebandcomposite outbound data signal using one of N-QAM (quadrature amplitudemodulation) and N-PSK (phase shift keying), wherein N equals 2′ and xequals the number of bits of the outbound data 264 plus the number ofbits of the inbound data 274.

FIG. 24 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an RFtransceiver device that includes a processing module 250, memory 252, abaseband processing module 254, an RF section 256, the RF bus controller88, an RF bus 262, a peripheral interface module 224, an RF I/O bus 244,and a plurality of peripheral circuits 228-230. Each of the processingmodule 250, the memory 242, the peripheral interface module 224, and theperipheral circuits 228-230 includes at least one RF bus transceiver235, 236, 238, 240, 258, and 260.

In this embodiment, the RF bus controller 88 controls access to the RFbus 262 for providing the RF bus outbound data signal 278 from one ofthe processing module RF bus transceiver 258, the memory RF bustransceiver 260, and the peripheral interface RF bus transceiver 236.The RF bus controller 88 also controls access to the RF bus 262 forproviding the RF bus inbound data signal 276 to one of the processingmodule RF bus transceiver 258, the memory RF bus transceiver 260, andthe peripheral interface RF bus transceiver 236.

The RF bus controller 88 further controls access to a peripheral I/O RFbus 244 among a plurality of peripheral circuits 228-230. In anembodiment, when access is granted to one of the plurality of peripheralcircuits 228-230, it provides an inbound RF peripheral data signal tothe peripheral interface RF bus transceiver 238 or receives an outboundRF peripheral data signal from the peripheral interface RF bustransceiver 238. The inbound or outbound RF peripheral data signal maydata from the processing module 250, may be data from the memory 252,may be the RF bus inbound data signal 276, may be the RF bus outbounddata signal 278, may the inbound data 274, and/or may be the outbounddata 264.

FIG. 25 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an RFtransceiver device that includes a processing module 330, memory 332, abaseband processing module 254, an RF section 256, the RF bus controller88, a bus structure 334, a peripheral interface module 224, an externalRF bus 336, and a plurality of peripheral circuits 228-230. Each of theperipheral interface module 224 and the peripheral circuits 228-230includes at least one RF bus transceiver 235, 238, and 240. Theprocessing module 330 and the baseband processing module 254 may be thesame processing module or different processing modules, where aprocessing module may be a single processing device or a plurality ofprocessing devices. Such a processing device may be a microprocessor,micro-controller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, centralprocessing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logicdevice, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals (analog and/ordigital) based on hard coding of the circuitry and/or operationalinstructions. The processing module may have an associated memory and/ormemory element (e.g., memory 332), which may be a single memory device,a plurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitry of theprocessing module. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory,random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, staticmemory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any devicethat stores digital information. Note that when the processing moduleimplements one or more of its functions via a state machine, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/ormemory element storing the corresponding operational instructions may beembedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising the statemachine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry.

In this embodiment, the processing module 330, the memory 332, thebaseband processing module 254, and the peripheral interface module 224are coupled together via a bus structure 334, which may be an advancedhigh-performance (AHB) bus matrix. As such, data between these modulesoccurs with the bus. The peripheral interface module 224 is coupled tothe plurality of peripheral circuits 228-230 via the external RF bus336, which may be one or more waveguide RF communication paths, one ormore dielectric RF communication paths, and/or one or more free-space RFcommunication paths.

In this instance, the RF bus controller 88 controls access the externalRF bus 336 among a plurality of peripheral circuits 228-230. In anembodiment, when access is granted to one of the plurality of peripheralcircuits 228-230, it provides an inbound RF peripheral data signal tothe peripheral interface RF bus transceiver 238 or receives an outboundRF peripheral data signal from the peripheral interface RF bustransceiver 238. The inbound or outbound RF peripheral data signal maydata from the processing module 330, may be data from the memory 332,may the inbound data 274, and/or may be the outbound data 264.

FIG. 26 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an RFIDsystem that includes at least one RFID reader 54-58, at least one RFIDtag 60-70, and a network connection module 352. The RFID reader 54-58includes a reader processing module 340, an RFID transceiver 342, and anRF bus transceiver 344. The RFID tag 60-70 includes a power recoverymodule 346, a tag processing module 348, and a transmit section 350. Thenetwork connection module 352 includes an RF bus transceiver 354.

The reader processing module 340 may be a single processing device or aplurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be amicroprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor,microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array,programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals(analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of the circuitry and/oroperational instructions. The processing module may have an associatedmemory and/or memory element, which may be a single memory device, aplurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitry of the processingmodule. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random accessmemory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamicmemory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that storesdigital information. Note that when the processing module implements oneor more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or memory elementstoring the corresponding operational instructions may be embeddedwithin, or external to, the circuitry comprising the state machine,analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry.

In an embodiment, reader processing module 340 encodes outbound RFIDdata 356 to produce outbound RFID encoded data 358. The encoding may bedone in accordance with an RFID protocol such as FM0, FM1, etc., may bea modified RFID protocol, and/or a proprietary protocol. Note that thereader processing module 340 may generate the outbound RFID data 356 orreceive it from the network connection module 352 via the RF bus 374.Further note that the outbound RFID data 356 may be a request for statusinformation from one or more RFID tags, may be data for storage and/orprocessing by one or more RFID tags, may be commands to be performed byone or more RFID tags, etc.

The RFID transceiver 342 is coupled to convert the outbound RFID encodeddata 358 into an outbound RF RFID signal 360. One or more of the RFIDtags 60-70 receives the outbound RF RFID signal 360 via an antennacoupled to the power recovery module 346. The power recovery module 346is coupled to produce a supply voltage (Vdd) 362 from the outbound RFRFID signal 360 and to produce a received RF RFID signal 364.

The tag processing module 348 may be a single processing device or aplurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be amicroprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor,microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array,programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals(analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of the circuitry and/oroperational instructions. The processing module may have an associatedmemory and/or memory element, which may be a single memory device, aplurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitry of the processingmodule. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random accessmemory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamicmemory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that storesdigital information. Note that when the processing module implements oneor more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or memory elementstoring the corresponding operational instructions may be embeddedwithin, or external to, the circuitry comprising the state machine,analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry.

The tag processing module 348 is coupled to recover the outbound RFIDdata 356 from the received RF RFID signal 364 and to generate tag RFIDdata 366 in response thereto. The tag RFID data 366 may be response toan inquiry, may be an acknowledgement of data storage, may be anacknowledgement of a program update, and/or may be an acknowledgement ofcompletion of execution of a command. The transmit section 350 iscoupled to convert the tag RFID data 366 into and inbound RF RFID signal368 using a back-scatter technique or some other RF modulation protocol.

The RFID transceiver 342 is further coupled to convert the inbound RFRFID signal 368 into inbound RFID encoded data 370. In one embodiment,the RFID transceiver 342 includes a transmitter section and a receiversection. An embodiment of the transmitter section is discussed withreference to FIG. 30 and an embodiment of the receiver section isdiscussed with reference to FIG. 29.

The reader processing module 340 decodes the inbound RFID encoded data370 to produce inbound RFID data 372. The decoding may be done inaccordance with an RFID protocol such as FM0, FM1, etc., may be amodified RFID protocol, and/or a proprietary protocol.

The network connection module 352 may be one of, or included in one of,the communication device 18-30, access points, and/or base stations ofFIG. 1, may be the computer or server of FIG. 2, and/or may be any otherdevice that supports a wireline or wireless network connection (e.g., alocal area connection, a wide area connection, a person area connection,etc.). In an embodiment, the reader RF bus transceiver 344 exchanges atleast one of the inbound RFID data 372 and the outbound RFID data 356with the network RF bus transceiver 354 via the RF bus 374. Note thatthe RF bus 374 may be one or more waveguide RF communication paths, oneor more dielectric RF communication paths, and/or one or more free-spaceRF communication paths.

In one embodiment of the RFID system, the inbound and outbound RF RFIDsignals 360 and 368 have a carrier frequency in a first frequency bandand the RF bus 374 supports RF bus communications having a carrierfrequency in a second frequency band. For example, the first or thesecond frequency band may be a 60 GHz frequency band. In this instance,the RFID communications and the RF bus communications provide littleinterference for one another.

FIG. 27 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of an RFIDsystem that includes at least one RFID reader 54-58, at least one RFIDtag 60-70, a network connection module 352, an RF bus 372, and an RF buscontroller 88. Each of the RFID readers 54-58 includes the RFIDtransceiver 342 and the RF bus transceiver 344. The network connectionmodule 352 includes the RF bus transceiver 354 and a WLAN (wirelesslocal area network) or WPAN (wireless personal area network) transceiver380.

In an embodiment, the RF bus controller 88 controls access to carrierfrequencies within a frequency band, wherein the inbound and outbound RFRFID signals 360 and 368 having a carrier frequency within the frequencyband and the RF bus 374 supports RF bus communications having a carrierfrequency within the frequency band.

In another embodiment, the inbound and outbound RF RFID signals 360 and368 have a carrier frequency in a first frequency band. The RF bus 374supports RF bus communications having a carrier frequency in a secondfrequency band. The WLAN transceiver 380 transceives RF signals having acarrier frequency in a third frequency band, wherein the first, secondor the third frequency bands is within a 60 GHz frequency band.

In another embodiment, the inbound and outbound RF RFID signals 360 and368 have a carrier frequency within a frequency band and the RF bus 374supports RF bus communications having the carrier frequency within thesame frequency band. The WLAN transceiver 380 transceives RF signalshaving a carrier frequency outside of the frequency band. In thisinstance, the RF bus controller 88 controls access to carrierfrequencies within the frequency band using a TDMA allocation, an FDMAallocation, a CDMA allocation, a CSMA with collision avoidance scheme, apolling-response scheme, a token passing scheme, and/or a combinationthereof.

In another embodiment, the inbound and outbound RF RFID signals 360 and368 have a carrier frequency within a frequency band, the RF bus 374supports RF bus communications having a carrier frequency within thefrequency band, and the WLAN transceiver 380 transceives RF signalshaving a carrier frequency within the frequency band. In this instance,the RF bus controller 88 controls access to carrier frequencies withinthe frequency band using a TDMA allocation, an FDMA allocation, a CDMAallocation, a CSMA with collision avoidance scheme, a polling-responsescheme, a token passing scheme, and/or a combination thereof.

FIG. 28 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFID reader54-58 that includes a processing module 390, a transmitter section 392,and a receiver section 394. The processing module 390 may be a singleprocessing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such aprocessing device may be a microprocessor, micro-controller, digitalsignal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, fieldprogrammable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logiccircuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device thatmanipulates signals (analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of thecircuitry and/or operational instructions. The processing module mayhave an associated memory and/or memory element, which may be a singlememory device, a plurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitryof the processing module. Such a memory device may be a read-onlymemory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory,static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or anydevice that stores digital information. Note that when the processingmodule implements one or more of its functions via a state machine,analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memoryand/or memory element storing the corresponding operational instructionsmay be embedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising thestate machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry.

In operation, the processing module 390 is coupled to encode tag inquirydata 408 to produce encoded tag inquiry data 410. The encoding may bedone in accordance with an RFID protocol such as FM0, FM1, etc., may bea modified RFID protocol, and/or a proprietary protocol. Note that theprocessing module 390 may generate the tag inquiry data 408 or receiveit from a network connection module 352 via the RF bus 374. Further notethat the tag inquiry data 408 may be a request for status informationfrom one or more RFID tags, may be data for storage and/or processing byone or more RFID tags, may be commands to be performed by one or moreRFID tags, etc.

For the processing module 390 to receive the tag inquiry data 408 fromthe network connection module 352, the network connection module 352generates the data 408 and the RF bus transceiver 354 converts it intoan inbound RF bus signal 402. The receiver section 394, which will bedescribed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 29, converts theinbound RF bus signal 402 into inbound RF bus encoded data 404. Theprocessing module 390 decodes the inbound RF bus encoded data 404 toproduce inbound RF bus data 406, which, in this example, is the taginquiry data 408. Note that other data may be received from the networkconnection module 352 in this manner.

The transmitter section 392, which will be described in greater detailwith reference to FIG. 30, is coupled to convert the encoded tag inquirydata 410 into an outbound RF tag inquiry signal 412. If the tag inquirydata 408 instructs the RFID tag to respond, the receiver section 394receives the inbound RF tag response signal 414.

The receiver section 394 converts the inbound RF tag response signal 414into encoded tag response data 416. The processing module 390 decodesthe encoded tag response data 416 to recover the tag response data 418.If the tag response data 418 is to be provided to the network connectionmodule 352, the processing module 390 utilizes the tag response data 418as the outbound RF bus data 396 and encodes the outbound RF bus data 396to produce outbound RF bus encoded data 398.

The transmitter section 392 converts the outbound RF bus encoded data398 into an outbound RF bus signal 400. The network connection module352 receives the outbound RF bus signal 400 via the RF bus and its RFbus transceiver 354. Note that other data may be transmitted to thenetwork connection module 352 in this manner.

In an embodiment, the processing module 390 further functions toarbitrate between RF bus communications (e.g., inbound and outbound RFbus signals 400 and 402) and RFID tag communications (e.g., outbound RFtag inquiry signal 412 and inbound RF tag response signal 414). In thismanner, interference between the RF bus communications and the RFID tagcommunications is minimal. Note that in an embodiment, the RF buscommunications and the RFID tag communications having a carrierfrequency in a 60 GHz frequency band.

FIG. 29 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a receiversection 394 that includes a low noise amplifier (LNA) 420, a blockcancellation module 422, and a down-conversion module 424. The low noiseamplifier 420 is coupled to amplify an inbound RF signal 426, which maybe the inbound RF bus signal 402 or the inbound RF tag response signal414 and the outbound RF tag inquiry signal 412, to produce an amplifiedinbound RF signal 428.

The block cancellation module 422 is coupled to receive the outbound RFtag inquiry signal 412 from the transmitter section 392 to produce areceived RF tag inquiry signal. In addition, the block cancellationmodule 422 receives the amplified inbound RF signal 428 from the LNA420. In one embodiment, the block cancellation module 422 substantiallycancels the outbound RF tag inquiry signal 412 from the amplifiedinbound RF signal using the received RF tag inquiry signal 412 and topass, substantially the inbound RF tag response signal 414 or theinbound RF bus signal 402 of the amplified inbound RF signal.

The down-conversion module 424 is coupled to convert the inbound RF tagresponse signal or the inbound RF bus signal 402 into the encoded tagresponse data 416 or the inbound RF bus encoded data 404.

FIG. 30 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a transmittersection 392 that includes a power level control module 434, a summingmodule 436, an oscillation module 438, and a power amplifier module 440.

The power level control module 434 is coupled to generate a power levelsetting 442. The particular power level setting depends on the desiredtransmit power and whether the PA 440 is linear or non-linear. Thesumming module 436 is coupled to sum the power level setting 442 and theencoded tag inquiry data 410 or the outbound RF bus encoded data 398 toproduce summed data 444. For example, the power level setting may belevel 1, the encoded tag inquiry data 410 or the outbound RF bus encodeddata 398 may be 011001 such that the summed data 444 is 122112.

The oscillation module 438, which may be implemented as shown in FIG.32, may be phase locked loop, etc., is coupled to generate anoscillation 446 at a desired frequency (e.g., 13 MHz, 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz,5.2 GHz, 60 GHz). The power amplifier section 440 is coupled toamplitude modulate the oscillation 446 based on the summed data 444 toproduce the outbound RF tag inquiry signal 412 or the outbound RF bussignal 400. An example of the amplitude modulated output is shown.

In a tag start up mode, the data input to the summing module is disabledsuch that the summing module 436 outputs the power level setting 442. Inthis manner, the power amplifier section 440 amplifies the oscillation446 to produce a continuous wave signal. Such a continuous wave signalit used by the RFID tag to derive its initial power.

FIG. 31 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RFID tag60-70 that is implemented on a die 475 that includes an antennastructure 452, a power recovery circuit 450, a data recovery module 456,a processing module 458, an oscillation module 454, and a transmittingcircuit 460. The processing module 458 may be a single processing deviceor a plurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be amicroprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor,microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array,programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals(analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of the circuitry and/oroperational instructions. The processing module may have an associatedmemory and/or memory element, which may be a single memory device, aplurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitry of the processingmodule. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory, random accessmemory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamicmemory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any device that storesdigital information. Note that when the processing module implements oneor more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/or memory elementstoring the corresponding operational instructions may be embeddedwithin, or external to, the circuitry comprising the state machine,analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry.

In operation, the antenna structure 452, which may be sized foroperation in a 60 GHz frequency band, receives an RF signal 462. The RFsignal 462 may be a continuous wave signal and/or the outbound RF taginquiry signal 412. The antenna structure 452 provides the received RFsignal 462 to the power recovery circuit 450 and the data recoverycircuit 456. The antenna structure 452 will be described in greaterdetail with reference to FIG. 33.

The power recovery circuit 450 converts the RF signal 462 into a supplyvoltage (Vdd) 464. In one embodiment, the power recovery circuit 450includes a rectifying module, which may be an active cell rectifier or acharge pump rectifier, and a tuning module. The tuning module tunes therectifying module in accordance with the RF signal. In other words, thetuning module tunes the frequency response of the rectifying modulebased on the frequency of the RF signal such that the frequency responseof the power recovery circuit 450 is optimized for the RF signal 462.The rectifying module, having been tuned, rectifies the RF signal 462and stores the rectified RF signal in a capacitor to produce the supplyvoltage 464, which is used to power the data recovery module 456, theprocessing module 458, the oscillation module 454, and the transmittingcircuit 460.

The oscillation module 454, an embodiment of which will be described ingreater detail with reference to FIG. 32, produces an oscillation 466having a frequency approximately equal to a carrier frequency of the RFsignal 462. The oscillation module 454 provides the oscillation 466 tothe data recovery module 456 and may also provide the oscillation to theprocessing module 458.

The data recovery module 456 is clocked via the oscillation 466 torecover data 468 from the RF signal 462. For example, the RF signal 462includes bi-phase encoded data that has the state of the encoded signalchange at the bit boundaries and, within the bit boundaries, a constantstate may represent a logic one and a toggle state may represent a logiczero. In this example, the data recovery module 456 recovers thebi-phase encoded data as the recovered data 468 and provides it to theprocessing module 458. In another example, the data recovery module 456may decode the recovered bi-phase encoded data to produce the recovereddata 468.

The processing module 468 processes the recovered data 468 and, whenindicated within the recovered data 468, generates RFID tag responsedata 470. The transmitting circuit 460, which may be a transistor,provides the RFID tag response data 470 to the antenna structure 452 fortransmission as an RF RFID response signal 472.

FIG. 32 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the oscillationmodule 454 that includes a quarter-wavelength microstrip 480, a pulsestimulator circuit 482, and an amplifier circuit 486. The pulsestimulator circuit 482 provides a low frequency periodic pulse (e.g.,the time (t) between pulses is much greater than the period of theresonant frequency of the quarter wavelength microstrip (1/f₄₆₀)) to thequarter wavelength microstrip 480 to stimulate self-resonance of thequarter wavelength microstrip 480. As shown, at a self-resonantfrequency, the quarter wavelength microstrip 480 includes an inherenttank circuit. The amplifier circuit 486 is coupled to the quarterwavelength microstrip 480 to produce the oscillation 466 from theself-resonance of the quarter wavelength microstrip.

FIG. 33 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an antennastructure 452 that includes a half wavelength dipole antenna 490 and atransmission line 490. Note that other on-die antenna structures may beused. For example, a quarter wavelength mono pole antenna may be used.

FIG. 34 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of a devicethat includes a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 500-502 and an RFbus structure 528. Each of the plurality of ICs 500-502 includes aplurality of circuit modules 504-506, 508-510, a switching module 512,514, an RF bus transceiver 516, 518, an antenna interface 520, 522, andan antenna structure 534, 526. The circuit modules 504-510 may be anytype of digital circuit, analog circuit, logic circuit, and/orprocessing circuit. For example, one of the circuit modules 504-510 maybe, but is not limited to, a microprocessor, a component of amicroprocessor, cache memory, read only memory, random access memory,programmable logic, digital signal processor, logic gate, amplifier,multiplier, adder, multiplexor, etc.

In this embodiment, the circuit modules 504-506 and 508-510 of an IC500, 502 share an RF bus transceiver 516, 518 for external ICcommunications (e.g., intra-device communications and/or inter-ICcommunications) and communicate via the switching module 512, 514 forinternal IC communications (e.g., intra-IC communications). Theswitching module 512, 514 may include a wireline bus structure (e.g.,AHB) and a plurality of switches, multiplexers, demultiplexers, gates,etc. to control access to the wireline bus structure and/or access tothe RF bus transceiver.

The antenna interface 520, 522 may include one or more of a transformerbalun, an impedance matching circuit, and a transmission line to providea desired impedance, frequency response, tuning, etc. for the antennastructure 524, 526. The antenna structure 524, 526 may be implemented asdescribed in co-pending patent application entitled AN INTEGRATEDCIRCUIT ANTENNA STRUCTURE, having a filing date of Dec. 29, 2006, and aSer. No. 11/648,826, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,893,878 on Feb. 22,2011.

The RF bus structure 528, which may be one or more waveguide RFcommunication paths, one or more dielectric RF communication paths,and/or one or more free-space RF communication paths, receives outboundRF bus signal from the antenna structure 524, 526 and provides it to theantenna structure 524, 526 of another one of the plurality of ICs500-502.

In an embodiment, the switching module 512, 514 performs the method ofFIG. 35 to control internal IC communications and external ICcommunications. The method begins at step 530 where the switching module512, 514 receives an outbound bus communication from one of theplurality of circuit modules 504-510. The process then proceeds to step532 where the switching module 512, 514 determines whether the outboundbus communication is an internal IC communication or an external ICcommunication.

When the outbound bus communication is an internal IC communication, theprocess proceeds to step 534 where the switching module 512, 514provides the outbound bus communication to another one of the pluralityof circuit modules 504-506, 508-510. In this instance, the switchingmodule 512, 514 utilizes the wireline bus structure and the appropriateswitches, multiplexers, etc. to couple one circuit module 504 to theother 506 for the conveyance of the outbound bus communication.

When the outbound bus communication is an external IC communication, theswitching module 512, 514 outputs the outbound bus communication to theRF bus transceiver 516, 518, which converts the outbound buscommunication into an outbound RF bus signal. The antenna interface andthe antenna structure provide the outbound RF bus signal to the RF busstructure 528 for conveyance to another circuit module of another IC.

For an inbound RF bus signal, the antenna structure 524, 526 receivesthe inbound RF bus signal from the RF bus structure 528 and provides itto the RF bus transceiver 516, 518 via the antenna interface 520, 522.The RF bus transceiver 516, 518 converts the inbound RF bus signal intoan inbound bus communication. The switching module 512, 514 interpretsthe inbound bus communication and provides it to the addressed circuitmodule or modules.

FIG. 36 is a diagram of an embodiment of a device that includes theplurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 500-502, the RF bus structure528, and a supporting substrate 540. In this embodiment, each of the ICs500-502 includes a package substrate 548, 550, and a die 544, 546 andthe supporting substrate 540 supports the ICs 500-502 and includes asupporting substrate micro-electromechanical (MEM) area 542. Thesupporting substrate 540 may be printed circuit board with or withouttraces, a non-conductive plastic board, and/or any other type ofsubstrate that will support a plurality of ICs 500-502.

As shown, the RF bus structure 528 is within the supporting substrateMEM area 542 and includes channels to the antenna structures 524, 526 ofthe ICs 500-502. In this manner, RF bus transmissions by the antennastructures 524, 526 is substantially contained within the MEM area 542that contains the RF bus structure 528. As such, interference from otherRF communications should be minimized and the RF bus transmissionsshould have minimal interference on the other RF transmissions.

As is also shown, the package substrate 548, 550 includes a MEM area552, 554. In an embodiment, the antenna interface 520, 522 and theantenna structure 524, 526 are within the package substrate MEM area552, 554.

FIG. 37 is a diagram of an embodiment of a device that includes theplurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 500-502, the RF bus structure528, and the supporting substrate 540. In this embodiment, each of theICs 500-502 includes a package substrate 548, 550, and a die 544, 546,the package substrate 548, 550 includes a MEM area 552, 554, and thesupporting substrate 540 supports the ICs 500-502 and includes asupporting substrate micro-electromechanical (MEM) area 542.

As shown, the antenna interface 520, 522 may be within the packagesubstrate MEM area 552, 554 and the antenna structure 524, 526 and theRF bus structure 528 may be within the supporting substrate MEM area542. In this embodiment, the antenna interface 520, 522 is coupled tothe antenna structure 524, 526 by a via and/or a pin on the package ofthe IC 500-502.

FIG. 38 is a diagram of an embodiment of a device that includes theplurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 500-502, the RF bus structure528, and a supporting substrate 540. In this embodiment, each of the ICs500-502 includes a package substrate 548, 550, and a die 544, 546, thepackage substrate 548, 550 includes a MEM area 552, 554, the die 544,546 includes a MEM area 556, 558, and the supporting substrate 540supports the ICs 500-502 and includes a supporting substratemicro-electromechanical (MEM) area 542.

As shown, an impedance matching circuit 560, 562 of the antennainterface 520, 522 is within the die MEM area 556, 558, a transmissionline 564, 566 of the antenna interface 520, 522 is within the packagesubstrate MEM area 552, 554, and the antenna structure 524, 526 and theRF bus structure 528 are within the supporting substrate MEM area 542.Alternatively, the antenna structure 524, 526 may be within the packagesubstrate MEM area 552, 554.

FIG. 39 is a diagram of an embodiment of an intra-device RF buscommunication between two circuit modules of different ICs. In thisembodiment, the antenna structure 524 of a first one of the plurality ofICs 500 has a three-dimensional aperture antenna shape, athree-dimensional lens shape, or a three-dimensional dipole shape (shownas a horn aperture antenna shape). The antenna structure 526 of a secondone of the plurality of ICs 502 has the three-dimensional apertureantenna shape, the three-dimensional lens shape, or thethree-dimensional dipole shape (also shown as a horn aperture antennashape).

The RF bus structure 528 has a three-dimensional waveguide construct(shown as a rectangular tube having a shape approximately equal to theshape of the horn antenna) and is proximally located between the antennastructures 524, 526 of the first and second ones of the plurality of ICs500-502. In this manner, RF bus communications between the ICs can besubstantially contained with the RF bus structure and, with thethree-dimensional antenna design and relatively short travel distances,the transmit power can be very low (e.g., <−50 dBm).

FIG. 40 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of a devicethat includes a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 570-572 and an RFbus structure 646. Each of the plurality of ICs 570-572 includes aplurality of circuit modules 580-582, 584-586, a plurality of switchingmodules 590-592, 594-596, a plurality of internal RF bus transceivers600-602, 604-606, a plurality of internal RF bus antenna interfaces610-612, 614-616, a plurality of internal RF bus antenna structures620-622, 624-626, an internal RF bus 630, 632, an external busmultiplexer module 634, 636, an external RF bus transceiver 635, 645, anexternal RF bus antenna interface 638, 640, and an external RF busantenna structure 642, 644. The circuit modules 580-586 may be any typeof digital circuit, analog circuit, logic circuit, and/or processingcircuit. For example, one of the circuit modules 580-586 may be, but isnot limited to, a microprocessor, a component of a microprocessor, cachememory, read only memory, random access memory, programmable logic,digital signal processor, logic gate, amplifier, multiplier, adder,multiplexor, etc.

In this embodiment, one or more of the circuit modules 580-584 generatesan outbound bus signal and provides it to a corresponding one of theswitching modules 590-596 (e.g., switching module 590 for circuit module580). The switching module 590-596, which includes a processing moduleand switching elements (e.g., switches, transistors, multiplexers,gates, etc.), determines whether the outbound bus signal is an internalIC communication or an external IC communication.

When the outbound bus communication is an internal IC communication, thecorresponding switching module 590-596 outputs the outbound bus signalvia a first path to a corresponding one of the RF bus transceivers600-606 (e.g., RF bus transceiver 600 for switching module 590). Thecorresponding RF bus transceiver 600-606 converts the outbound bussignal into an outbound RF bus signal, which it provides to acorresponding internal RF bus antenna interface 610-616 (e.g., internalRF bus antenna interface 610 for RF bus transceiver 600). The internalRF bus antenna interface 610, which may include a transformer, animpedance matching circuit, and/or a transmission line, provides theoutbound RF bus signal to a corresponding internal RF bus antennastructure 620-626. The corresponding internal RF bus antenna structure620-626, which may be any one of the antenna structures disclosed inco-pending patent application entitled AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT ANTENNASTRUCTURE, having a filing date of Dec. 29, 2006, and a Ser. No.11/648,826, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,893,878 on Feb. 22, 2011,transmits the outbound RF bus signal to another antenna structure withinthe same IC via the internal RF bus 630, 632. The internal RF bus 630,632 includes one or more waveguide RF communication paths, one or moredielectric RF communication paths, and/or one or more free-space RFcommunication paths.

When the outbound bus communication is an external IC communication, thecorresponding switching module 590-596 outputs the outbound bus signalvia a second path to the external bus multiplexing module 634, 636. Theexternal bus multiplexing module 590-596, which includes control logicand one or more multiplexers, outputs an outbound bus signal from one ofthe plurality of switching module 590-592, 594-596 to the external RFbus transceiver 635, 645. The external RF bus transceiver 635, 645converts the outputted outbound bus signal into an outbound external RFbus signal, which is provided to the external RF bus antenna interface638, 640.

The external RF bus antenna interface 638, 640, which includes atransformer, an impedance matching circuit, and/or a transmission line,provides the outbound external RF bus signal to the external RF busantenna structure 642, 644. The external RF bus antenna structure 642,644, which may be any one of the antenna structures disclosed inco-pending patent application entitled AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT ANTENNASTRUCTURE, having a filing date of Dec. 29, 2006, and a Ser. No.11/648,826, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,893,878 on Feb. 22, 2011,transmits the outbound external RF bus signal to another IC 570, 572 viathe external RF bus structure 646. In an embodiment, the external RF busstructure includes one or more waveguide RF communication paths, one ormore dielectric RF communication paths, and/or one or more free-space RFcommunication paths.

FIG. 41 is a diagram of an embodiment of a device that includes theplurality of integrated circuits (ICs) 570-572, the RF bus structure646, and a supporting substrate 650. In this embodiment, each of the ICs570-572 includes a die 654, 656, and a package substrate 658, 660, thepackage substrate 658, 660 includes a package substrate MEM area 662,664, and the supporting substrate 650 includes a supporting substratemicro-electromechanical (MEM) area 652.

The MEM areas of the package substrate 658, 660 and the supportingsubstrate 650 may be used in a variety of ways to provide the internalIC RF bus communications and the external IC RF bus communications. Forexample, the external RF bus structure 646 may be within the supportingsubstrate MEM area 652 and the internal RF bus structures 630, 632 maybe within the respective package substrate MEM areas 662, 664. Asanother example, the external RF bus antenna interface 638, 640 and theexternal RF bus antenna structure 642, 644 may be within the packagesubstrate MEM area 662, 664. As yet another example, the external RF busantenna interface 638, 640 may be within the package substrate MEM area662, 664 and the external RF bus antenna structure 642, 644 may bewithin the supporting substrate MEM area 652. The later two examples aresimilar to the examples provided in FIGS. 36-37.

In another embodiment, the die 654, 656 may include a die MEM area,which contains therein an impedance matching circuit of one of theplurality of internal RB bus antenna interfaces 610-616. In such anembodiment, a transmission line of one of the plurality of internal RBbus antenna interfaces 610-616, the corresponding internal RF busantenna structure 620-626, and the internal RF bus structure 630-632 maybe within the package substrate MEM area 662, 664.

In an embodiment of an external RF bus communication between two circuitdifferent ICs, the external RF bus antenna structure 642 of one IC 570has a three-dimensional aperture antenna shape, a three-dimensional lensshape, or a three-dimensional dipole shape. The external RF bus antennastructure 644 of a second IC 572 has the three-dimensional apertureantenna shape, the three-dimensional lens shape, or thethree-dimensional dipole shape.

The external RF bus structure 646 has a three-dimensional waveguideconstruct that is proximally located between the external RF bus antennastructures 642, 644 of the ICs 570-572. In this manner, external RF buscommunications between the ICs can be substantially contained with theexternal RF bus structure 6464 and, with the three-dimensional antennadesign and relatively short travel distances, the transmit power can bevery low (e.g., <−50 dBm).

FIG. 42 is a diagram of an embodiment of an IC 500-502, 570-572 thatincludes a plurality of circuit modules 676, 678, an RF bus transceivermodule 680, a die 670, and a package substrate 672. The RF bustransceiver module 680 includes an RF bus transceiver and an antennainterface module. The RF bus transceiver includes a baseband (BB)processing module 682, a transmitter section 684, and a receiver section686. The antenna interface module includes one or more of a transformer688, an impedance matching circuit 690, and a transmission line 692. Thepackage substrate 672 supports the die and includes amicro-electromechanical (MEM) area 674.

In this embodiment, the baseband processing module 682, which may besingle processing device or a plurality of processing devices aspreviously defined, is coupled to convert outbound bus data into anoutbound bus symbol stream. The transmitter section 684 is coupled toconvert the outbound bus symbol stream into an outbound RF bus signal,which is provided to the transformer 688. The transformer 688 includes adifferential winding coupled to the transmitter section 684 and asingle-ended winding coupled to the impedance matching circuit 690.

The impedance matching circuit 690 adjusts gain, phase, and/or impedanceof the single-ended outbound RF bus signal and provides the adjustedsingle-ended outbound RF bus signal to the transmission line 692 forconveyance to an antenna structure. The transmission line 692 is alsocoupled to receive a single-ended inbound RF bus signal from the antennastructure and to provide it to the impedance matching circuit 690.

The impedance matching circuit 690 adjusts gain, phase, and/or impedanceof the single-ended inbound RF bus signal and provides the adjustedsingle-ended outbound RF bus signal to single-ended winding of thetransformer 688. The transformer 688 converts the single-ended inboundRF bus signal into a differential inbound RF bus signal via thedifferential winding or a second differential winding. The transformerprovides the differential inbound RF bus signal to the receiver section686.

The receiver section 686 is coupled to convert an inbound RF bus signalinto an inbound bus symbol stream. The baseband processing module 682converts the inbound bus symbol stream into inbound bus data. In thisembodiment, at least one of the transformer 688, the impedance matchingcircuit 690, and the transmission line 692 is within the MEM area 674.

FIG. 43 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a portion of anRF bus transceiver module 680 that includes the transformer 688, theimpedance matching circuit 690, and the transmission line 692. In thisdiagram, the transformer includes a differential winding and asingle-ended winding; and the impedance matching circuit 690 includes atleast one capacitor and at least one inductor (2 of each are shown, butcould include more or less of each, at least one of the capacitors andinductors may be adjustable or including a selectable network ofcapacitors or inductors). In an embodiment, the transmission line 692,when implemented within the MEM area 674 may have a three-dimensionalshape corresponding to a coaxial cable.

FIG. 44 is a diagram of an embodiment of a three-dimensional inductor ofthe impedance matching circuit 690 and/or a three-dimensionaltransformer 688 implemented within the MEM area 674. The inductor and/ortransformer 688 may have an air core, a ferrite core, or other materialthat provides a medium for electromagnetic waves. The core 694 may be ofany shape to provide the desired magnetic coupling of the winding 696.Note that the transformer 688 would include multiple windings 696.

FIG. 45 is a diagram of an embodiment of a three-dimensional capacitorof the impedance matching circuit 690. The three-dimensional capacitorincludes first and second plates 700 and 702, which may be anyconductive material, and a dielectric 698, which may be air or any othertype of dielectric material that can sustain an electric field. Notethat the shape of the plates 700 and 702 may be square as shown or someother geometric shape.

FIG. 46 is a diagram of an embodiment of a package substrate 672 of anIC. The package substrate 674 includes two MEM areas 674 and 710. Thesecond MEM area 710 supports an RF transmit filter 712, a transmitoscillator (TX OSC) 714, an RF receive filter 716, and/or a receiveoscillator (RX OSC) 718. The RF transmit filter 714 may be a low passfilter, a bandpass filter, or a high pass filter used within thetransmitter section 684.

The transmitter section 684 also includes the transmit oscillator 714,which generates a local oscillation for mixing with the outbound bussymbol stream to produce the outbound RF bus signal. The transmitoscillator 714 may be implement as shown in FIG. 31, may be a phaselocked loop, or some other controlled resonating circuit.

The receiver section 686 includes the RF receive filter 716 and areceive oscillator 718. The RF receive filter 716 may be a low passfilter, a bandpass filter, or a high pass filter and the receiveoscillator 718 generates a local oscillation for mixing with the inboundRF bus signal to produce the inbound bus symbol stream. The receiveoscillator 718 may be implement as shown in FIG. 31, may be a phaselocked loop, or some other controlled resonating circuit.

FIG. 47 is a diagram of an embodiment of an IC 500-502, 570-572 thatincludes a plurality of circuit modules 676, 678, an RF bus transceivermodule 680, and a die 720. The RF bus transceiver module 680 includes anRF bus transceiver and an antenna interface module. The RF bustransceiver includes a baseband (BB) processing module 682, atransmitter section 684, and a receiver section 686. The antennainterface module includes one or more of a transformer 688, an impedancematching circuit 690, and a transmission line 692. The die includes amicro-electromechanical (MEM) area 722. In this embodiment, at least oneof the transformer 688, the impedance matching circuit 690, and thetransmission line 692 is within the MEM area 722.

FIG. 48 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RF buscontroller 88 that includes an interface 730 and a processing module732. The processing module 732 may be a single processing device or aplurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be amicroprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor,microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array,programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals(analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of the circuitry and/oroperational instructions. The processing module 732 may have anassociated memory and/or memory element, which may be a single memorydevice, a plurality of memory devices, and/or embedded circuitry of theprocessing module. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory,random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, staticmemory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory, and/or any devicethat stores digital information. Note that when the processing module732 implements one or more of its functions via a state machine, analogcircuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory and/ormemory element storing the corresponding operational instructions may beembedded within, or external to, the circuitry comprising the statemachine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry.Further note that, the memory element stores, and the processing module732 executes, hard coded and/or operational instructions correspondingto at least some of the steps and/or functions illustrated in FIGS.49-55.

The interface 730 may be a wireline interface (e.g., an Ethernetconnection, a USB connection, an I2C connection, an I2S connection, orany other type of serial interface) or a wireless interface (e.g., WLAN,WPAN, Intra-device communication, etc.) If the interface 730 is awireless interface, it may include a transceiver module to access acontrol RF communication path having a different frequency than afrequency of the RF bus, a transceiver module to access a control timeslot of a time division multiple access partitioning of the RF bus, atransceiver module to access a control frequency slot of a frequencydivision multiple access partitioning of the RF bus, or a transceivermodule to access the RF bus for communicating the intra-device RF busaccess requests and allocations via a carrier sense multiple access(CSMA) protocol. Regardless of the type of interface, the interface 732is coupled for communicating intra-device RF bus access requests andallocations.

FIG. 49 is a logic diagram of method for controlling access to an RF busthat is performed by the RF bus controller 88. The method begins at step734 where the RF Bus controller 88 receives an access request to an RFbus via the interface 730. The access request may be received in avariety of ways. For example, the access request may be received inresponse to a polling request, in an allocated time division multipleaccess (TDMA) slot, in response to a token ring passing scheme, inaccordance with a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocol of a RFbus control resource, in accordance with an interrupt protocol, in anallocated frequency division multiple access (FDMA) slot, and/or in anallocated code division multiple access (CDMA) slot.

The method continues at step 736 where the RF bus controller 88determines RF bus resource availability. This step may also includedetermining an RF bus protocol based on the access request. The RF busprotocol may be a standardized wireless protocol (e.g., GSM, EDGE, GPRS,IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, etc), a proprietary wireless protocol, and/or amodified standardized wireless protocol (based on one of the standardprotocols but modified, for instance, using an IEEE 802.11 protocol butskipping the interleaving). The determining of the RF bus resourceavailability will be described in greater detail with reference to FIG.51.

The method branches at step 738 based on whether sufficient RF busresources are availability. When sufficient RF bus resources areavailable, the process proceeds to step 740 where the RF bus controllerallocates, via the interface, at least one RF bus resource in responseto the access request. Note that the RF bus resources include, but arenot limited to, a Single Input Single Output (SISO) channel, a MultipleInput Multiple Output (MIMO) channel, multiple SISO channels, multipleMIMO channels, null-reinforce multipath patterning (e.g., use multipathreinforced areas for RF bus communications between two ICs and multipathnulls to block RF bus communications between two ICs), frequency bandselection, a TDMA slot, a CDMA slot, an FDMA slot, an unused free-spaceRF communication path or channel, an unused waveguide RF communicationpath or channel, an unused dielectric RF communication path or channel,and/or any other medium or portioning scheme for transmitting RFsignals.

When sufficient RF bus resources are not available, the method proceedsto step 742 where the RF bus controller 88 determining what RF busresources are available. The method then proceeds to step 744 where theRF bus controller determines whether the access request can beadequately accommodated by the available RF bus resources. In otherwords, optimal servicing of the original resource request would requirea certain level of RF bus resource allocation based on the amount ofdata to be transmitted, the type of data being transmitted, therequestor of the RF bus access, the target(s) of the data, etc. In thisinstance, the optimal amount of RF bus resources is not available, butthere are some resources available and the RF bus controller isdetermining whether this less than optimal amount of RF bus resourcescan adequately accommodate (e.g., less than optimal, but acceptable) therequest. For example, assume that for a particular RF bus accessrequest, the optimal amount of RF bus resources supports a data transferrate of 100 Mega-bits per second, but that the available RF busresources can only accommodate 66 Mega-bits per second. In this example,the RF bus controller 88 will determine whether the 66 Mbps rate willaccommodate the request (i.e., won't suffer loss of data integrity, lossof data continuity, etc.).

When the access request can be accommodated by the available RF busresources, the method proceeds to step 746 where the RF bus controller88 allocates the available RF bus resources to for the access request.If, however, the access request cannot be accommodated by the availableRF bus resources, the method proceeds to step 748 where the RF buscontroller queues the access request.

FIG. 50 is a diagram of another embodiment of a frame 750 of an RF buscommunication that includes a request control slot 752, an allocationcontrol slot 754, and a data slot(s) 756. In this embodiment, the slots752-756 may be TDMA slots, FDMA slots, or CDMA slots on a single channelor multiple channels. Access to the request control slot 752 beallocated to the requesting ICs or circuit modules by the RF buscontroller 88 in a round robin manner, in a poll-request manner, in aCSMA with collision avoidance manner, etc.

In this embodiment, when an IC or circuit module has data to transmitvia an RF bus (e.g., intra-IC RF bus and/or inter-IC RF bus), therequesting IC or circuit module provides its request within the requestcontrol slot 752. The requesting IC or circuit module waits until itdetects an RF bus grant from the RF bus controller via the allocationcontrol slot 754. The RF bus grant will indicate the RF bus resourcesbeing allocated, the duration of the allocation, etc. and may furtherinclude an indication of the RF bus protocol to be used. Once therequesting IC or circuit module has been granted access, it transmitsits data via the allocated RF bus resources during the appropriate dataslots 756.

FIG. 51 is a logic diagram of method for determining RF bus resourceavailability of step 736 of FIG. 49. This method begins at step 760where the RF bus controller determines transmission requirements of theaccess request, RF bus capabilities of requestor, and/or RF buscapabilities of target. The transmission requirements include one ormore of amount of information to be conveyed, priority level ofrequestor (e.g., application level priority, operating system levelpriority, continuous data priority, discontinuous data priority, etc.),priority level of the information to be conveyed (e.g., applicationdata, interrupt data, operating system data, etc.), real-time ornon-real-time aspect of the information to be conveyed, and/orinformation conveyance integrity requirements.

The conveyance integrity requirements relate to the sensitivity of thedata, the requestor, and/or the target is to data transmission errorsand the ability to correct them. Thus, if any of the target or requestoris intolerant to data transmission errors and/or they cannot becorrected, the data needs to be transmitted with the highest level ofintegrity to insure that very few data transmission errors will occur.Conversely, if the requestor and target can tolerate data transmissionerrors and/or can correct them; lower levels of integrity can be used toprovide an adequate RF bus communication. Thus, the RF bus controllermay consider the RF communication paths available (e.g., waveguide,dielectric, free-space), the level of rate encoding, the level ofinterleaving, the level of error correction, and/or the level ofacknowledgement. For example, a request that can tolerate datatransmission errors, the data may be bi-phase encoded with nointerleaving and rate encoding and transmitted over a free-space RFcommunication path, where a request that cannot tolerate datatransmission errors, the data will be encoded using the rate encoding,it will be interleaved, error correction (e.g., forward error correct)enabled, and transmitted over a waveguide RF communication path.

The method then proceeds to step 762 where the RF bus controllerdetermines required RF bus resources based on the at least one of thetransmission requirements, the RF bus capabilities of the requestor, andthe RF bus capabilities of the target. The method then proceeds to step764 where the RF bus controller determines whether the required RF busresources are available for allocation.

FIG. 52 is a logic diagram of another method for controlling access toan RF bus that is performed by the RF bus controller 88. The methodbegins at step 734 where the RF Bus controller 88 receives an accessrequest to an RF bus via the interface 730. The access request may bereceived in a variety of ways. For example, the access request may bereceived in response to a polling request, in an allocated time divisionmultiple access (TDMA) slot, in response to a token ring passing scheme,in accordance with a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocol of aRF bus control resource, in accordance with an interrupt protocol, in anallocated frequency division multiple access (FDMA) slot, and/or in anallocated code division multiple access (CDMA) slot.

The method continues at step 736 where the RF bus controller 88determines RF bus resource availability. This step may also includedetermining an RF bus protocol based on the access request. The RF busprotocol may be a standardized wireless protocol (e.g., GSM, EDGE, GPRS,IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, etc), a proprietary wireless protocol, and/or amodified standardized wireless protocol (based on one of the standardprotocols but modified, for instance, using an IEEE 802.11 protocol butskipping the interleaving). The determining of the RF bus resourceavailability was described with reference to FIG. 51.

The method branches at step 738 based on whether sufficient RF busresources are availability. When sufficient RF bus resources areavailable, the process proceeds to step 740 where the RF bus controllerallocates, via the interface, at least one RF bus resource in responseto the access request. Note that the RF bus resources include, but arenot limited to, a Single Input Single Output (SISO) channel, a MultipleInput Multiple Output (MIMO) channel, multiple SISO channels, multipleMIMO channels, null-reinforce multipath patterning (e.g., use multipathreinforced areas for RF bus communications between two ICs and multipathnulls to block RF bus communications between two ICs), frequency bandselection, a TDMA slot, a CDMA slot, an FDMA slot, an unused free-spaceRF communication path or channel, an unused waveguide RF communicationpath or channel, an unused dielectric RF communication path or channel,and/or any other medium or portioning scheme for transmitting RFsignals.

When sufficient RF bus resources are not available, the method proceedsto step 766 where the RF bus controller 88 determines whether priorityof requestor is at or above a first priority level. The priority levelmay be user defined, system defined, an ordering based on data type(e.g., operating system level data, application level data, interruptdata, real-time or continuous data v. non-real-time or discontinuousdata, etc.), system level based (e.g., processing module, memory,peripheral device, etc. in order) and/or any other priority and/orordering scheme. When the request is not above the 1^(st) level, themethod proceeds to step 768 where the RF bus controller queues therequest.

When priority of the requestor is at or above the first priority level,the method proceeds to step 77 where the RF bus controller 88 determineswhether allocated RF bus resources can be reallocated to make availablethe sufficient RF bus resources. In this determination, the RF buscontroller is determining whether existing RF bus communications canhave their RF bus resources reallocated such that their level of serviceis below optimal, but still acceptable, to make sufficient resourcesavailable for the 1^(st) level or higher priority RF bus request.

When the RF bus resources can be reallocated, the method proceeds tostep 772 where the RF bus controller reallocates at least some of theallocated RF bus resources to make resources available for the 1^(st)level or higher priority RF bus request. The method then proceeds tostep 774 where the RF bus controller 88 allocates the sufficient RF busresources to the 1^(st) level or higher priority request.

When the allocated RF bus resources cannot be reallocated and stillprovide an acceptable level of performance, the RF bus controller 88determines whether the priority of the requestor is of a second prioritylevel (i.e., of the highest level that if its request is not timelysatisfied, the entire system or device may lock up). If the priority isnot at the 2^(nd) level, the method proceeds to step 768 where the RFbus controller 88 queues the request.

If, however, the priority level of the requestor is of the secondpriority level, the method proceeds to step 778 where the RF buscontroller reclaims RF bus resources from the allocated RF bus resourcesto provide the sufficient RF bus resources. In other words, the RF buscontroller cancels a current RF bus communication to reclaim them forthe 2^(nd) priority level request. In one embodiment, the current RF buscommunication having the most tolerance to a data transmissioninterruption is selected for reclaiming the RF bus resources. The methodthen proceeds to step 780 where the RF bus controller 88 allocates thereclaimed RF bus resources to the 2^(nd) priority level requestor.

FIG. 53 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of a device80 that includes a requestor IC or circuit module 790, a target IC orcircuit module 792, the RF bus controller 88, a system level RF bus 814,and an application level RF bus 816. The requestor 790 and the target792 each include an RF bus transceiver 974. The RF bus transceiver 794includes a programmable encode/decode module 796, a programmableinterleave/deinterleave module 798, a programmable map/demap module 800,an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT)/FFT module 804, an RF front-end804, and a plurality of multiplexers 806-810. The system level RF bus814 and the application level RF bus 816 each include one or morewaveguide RF communication paths, one or more dielectric RFcommunication paths, and/or one or more free-space RF communicationpaths.

In this embodiment, the RF bus controller 88 controls access to thesystem level RF bus 814 for operating system level data conveyances andcontrols access to the application level RF bus 816 for applicationlevel data conveyances. Such data conveyances may include controlinformation, operational instructions, and/or data (e.g., raw data,intermediate data, processed data, and/or stored data that includes textinformation, numerical information, video files, audio files, graphics,etc.).

In addition to controlling access to the RF buses 814 and 816, the RFbus controller 88 may indicate to the RF bus transceivers 794 the RF busprotocol to be used for converting outbound data into outbound RF bussignals. For example, the RF bus protocol may be a standardized wirelessprotocol (e.g., IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, GSM, EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, etc.),may be a proprietary wireless protocol, or a modified standard wirelessprotocol.

For example, if the RF bus controller 88 indicates using a standard IEEE802.11 wireless protocol (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, b, g, n, etc.), the RF bustransceiver 794 enables the programmable modules 796, 798, and 800 andthe multiplexers 806-810 to perform in accordance with the IEEE 802.11standard. For instance, multiplexer 806 provides outbound data to theprogrammable encoding/decoding module 706 that performs a half rate (orother rate) convolution encoding on the outbound data to produce encodeddata. The programmable encoding/decoding module 706 may further puncturethe encoded data to produce punctured data.

Continuing with the example, the encoded or punctured data is outputtedto multiplexer 808, which provides the data to the programmableinterleave/deinterleave module 708. The programmableinterleave/deinterleave module 708 interleaves bits of different encodeddata words to produce interleaved data. Multiplexer 810 provides theinterleaved data to the programmable map/demap module 800 which maps theinterleaved data to produce mapped data. The mapped data is convertedfrom the frequency domain to the time domain by the IFFT portion of theIFFT/FFT module 802 to produce an outbound symbol stream. Multiplexer810 provides the outbound symbol stream to the RF front end 804, whichincludes an RF transmitter section and an RF receiver section. The RFtransmitter section converts the outbound symbol stream into an outboundRF bus signal.

The target 792 receives the outbound RF bus signal via the system levelRF bus 814 or the application level RF bus 816 via its RF bustransceiver 794. The receiver section of the RF front end 804 convertsthe received RF bus signal into an inbound symbol stream. The FFTportion of the IFFT/FFT module 802 converts the inbound symbol streamfrom the time domain to the frequency domain to produce inbound mappeddata. The programmable map/demap module 800 demaps the inbound mappeddata to produce inbound interleaved data. Multiplexer 810 provides theinbound interleaved data to the programmable interleave/deinterleavemodule 798, which deinterleaves the inbound interleaved data to produceencoded or punctured data. The programmable encoding/decoding module 796depunctures and/or decodes the encoded or punctured data to recapturethe data.

As an example of a modified standard wireless protocol, multiplexer 806provides outbound data to the programmable encoding/decoding module 706that performs a half rate (or other rate) convolution encoding on theoutbound data in accordance with a standard wireless protocol (e.g.,IEEE 802.11) to produce encoded data. The programmable encoding/decodingmodule 706 may further puncture the encoded data to produce punctureddata.

Continuing with the example, the encoded or punctured data is outputtedto multiplexer 808, which provides the data to the programmablemap/demap module 800 which maps the encoded or punctured data to producemapped data. The mapped data is converted from the frequency domain tothe time domain by the IFFT portion of the IFFT/FFT module 802 toproduce an outbound symbol stream. Multiplexer 810 provides the outboundsymbol stream to the RF transmitter section, which converts the outboundsymbol stream into an outbound RF bus signal. As illustrated by thisexample, a modified standard wireless protocol is based on a standardwireless protocol with one or more of its functional steps omitted ormodified.

As another example of a modified standard wireless protocol, multiplexer806 provides outbound data to the programmable map/demap module 800which maps the outbound data to produce mapped data. The mapped data isconverted from the frequency domain to the time domain by the IFFTportion of the IFFT/FFT module 802 to produce an outbound symbol stream,which is subsequently converted into the outbound RF bus signal.

As an example of a proprietary RF bus protocol, multiplexer 806 providesoutbound data to the programmable encoding/decoding module 706 thatperforms a bi-phase, return to zero (RTZ), non-return to zero (NRZ),and/or another binary encoding scheme to produce binary encoded data.The binary encoded data may be provided directly to the RF front end 804via multiplexers 808 and 812, to the programmableinterleave/deinterleave module 798 via multiplexer 808, or to theprogrammable map/demap module 800 via multiplexers 808 and 810.

The programmable map/demap module 800 may be programmed to map/demapdata in a variety of ways. For example, the programmable map/demapmodule 800 may map the data into Cartesian coordinates having anin-phase component (e.g., A_(I)(t)cos ω(t)) and a quadrature component(e.g., A_(Q)(t)sin ω(t)). As another example, the programmable map/demapmodule 800 may map the data into polar coordinates (e.g.,A(t)cos(ω(t)+φ(t))). As yet another example, the programmable map/demapmodule 800 may map the data into hybrid coordinates having a normalizedin-phase component (e.g., cos(ω(t)+φ(t)) and a normalized quadraturecomponent (e.g., sin(ω(t)+φ(t))).

FIG. 54 is a logic diagram of another method for controlling access toan RF bus. The method begins at step 818 where the RF bus controllerdetermines access requirements to an RF bus. The access requirements mayinclude system configuration information, system level RF bus resources,application level RF bus resources, RF bus capabilities of requestor, RFbus capabilities of target, amount of information to be conveyed,priority level of requestor, priority level of the information to beconveyed, real-time or non-real-time aspect of the information to beconveyed, and/or information conveyance integrity requirements.

The system configuration information includes number of ICs in thedevice, number of circuit modules in the ICs, nulling and reinforcingpatterns, number and type of intra-device RF data bus, number and typeof intra-device RF instruction bus, number and type of intra-device RFcontrol bus, number and type of intra-IC RF data bus, number and type ofintra-IC RF instruction bus, number and type of intra-IC RF control bus,types of ICs in the device, and/or bus interface capabilities of the ICsand/or its circuit modules. Note that the information conveyanceintegrity requirements include level of rate encoding (e.g., ½ rate, ¾rate, etc.), level of interleaving, level of error correction, and/orlevel of acknowledgement (e.g., whether an ACK back is required or not,if required content of the ACK). Further note that the system level RFbus resources and the application level RF bus resources includes aSingle Input Single Output (SISO) channel, a Multiple Input MultipleOutput (MIMO) channel, multiple SISO channels, multiple MIMO channels,null-reinforce multipath patterning, frequency band selection, waveguideRF path, dielectric RF path, free space RF path, time division multipleaccess (TDMA) time slot, frequency division multiple access (FDMA)frequency slot, code division multiple access (CDMA) code slot,proprietary resource, and carrier sense multiple access (CSMA).

The method then proceeds to step 820 where the RF bus controllerdetermines RF bus resource available. This step may further includedetermining an RF bus protocol based on the access request, wherein theRF bus protocol is one of: a standardized wireless protocol, aproprietary wireless protocol, and a modified standardized wirelessprotocol.

The method then proceeds to step 822 where the RF bus controllerallocates, via the interface, RF bus resources in accordance with theaccess requirements and the RF bus resource availability. This may bedone by determining whether sufficient RF bus resources are available tofulfill the access requirements; when the sufficient RF bus resourcesare available to fulfill the access request, allocating the sufficientRF bus resources to a requestor; when the sufficient RF bus resourcesare not available to fulfill the access request, determining availableRF bus resources; determining whether the access requirements can beaccommodated by the available RF bus resources; when the access requestcan be accommodated by the available RF bus resources, allocating theavailable RF bus resources to the requestor; and when the access requestcannot be accommodated by the available RF bus resources, queuing theaccess requirements.

The method may further include, when the sufficient RF bus resources arenot available to fulfill the access requirements, the RF bus controllerdetermining whether priority of the requestor is at or above a firstpriority level; when priority of the requestor is at or above the firstpriority level, determining whether allocated RF bus resources can bereallocated to make available the sufficient RF bus resources; when theallocated RF bus resources can be reallocated, reallocating at leastsome of the allocated RF bus resources; when the RF bus resources cannotbe reallocated, determining whether the priority of the requestor is ofa second priority level; when the priority level of the requestor is ofthe second priority level, reclaiming RF bus resources from theallocated RF bus resources to provide the sufficient RF bus resources;and when the priority level of the requestor is below the secondpriority level, queuing the access requirements.

FIG. 55 is a logic diagram of another method for controlling access toan RF bus. The method begins at step 824 where the RF bus controllerdetermines access requirements to an RF bus for a circuit of anintegrated circuit (IC) of a plurality of integrated circuits. This maybe done as previously discussed. The method then proceeds to step 826where the RF bus controller determines whether the access requirementspertain to an inter-IC communication or an intra-IC communication.

The method then proceeds to step 828 where the RF bus controller 88determines RF bus resource available in accordance with inter-ICcommunication or the intra-IC communication. This may be done aspreviously described. The method then proceeds to step 830 where the RFbus controller allocates, via the interface, RF bus resources inaccordance with the access requirements and the RF bus resourceavailability.

FIG. 56 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an RF bustransceiver 840 that may be used as or in combination with RF bustransceiver 108, 110, 130, 150, 152, 180-186, 210, 212, 232, 234, 235,236, 238, 240, 258, 260, 280, 344, 354, 516, 518, 600-604, 635, 645,680, and/or 794. The RF bus transceiver 840 includes a transmitter 842and a receiver 844. The transmitter 842 performs the methods of FIGS. 57and 59 and the receiver 844 performs the method of FIG. 58.

FIG. 57 is a logic diagram of method for RF bus transmitting that beginsat step 846 where the transmitter 842 determine whether outboundinformation is to be transmitted via the RF bus. Such a determinationmay be made by setting a flag by the IC or circuit module that includesthe RF bus transceiver, by providing the outbound information to the RFbus transceiver, and/or any other mechanism for notifying that it hasinformation to transmit.

When the outbound information is to be transmitted via the RF bus, themethod proceeds to step 848 where the transmitter 842 determines whetherthe RF bus is available. When the RF bus is not available, thetransmitter 842 waits until the RF bus becomes available. Thetransmitter 842 may determine by the availability of the RF bus byutilizing a carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance(CSMA/CD) access protocol, utilizing a request to send frame and clearto send frame exchange access protocol, utilizing a poll-response accessprotocol, interpreting a control time slot of a time division multipleaccess (TDMA) frame, interpreting a control frequency slot of afrequency division multiple access (FDMA) frame, interpreting a controlcode slot of a code division multiple access (CDMA) frame, and/orutilizing a request-grant access protocol.

When the RF bus is available, the method proceeds to step 850 where thetransmitter 842 secures access to the RF bus. The transmitter 842 maysecure access to the RF bus by accessing the RF bus in accordance with acarrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CD) accessprotocol, accessing the RF bus in response to a favorable request tosend frame and clear to send frame exchange, accessing the RF bus inaccordance with a poll-response access protocol, accessing the RF busvia an allocated time slot of a time division multiple access (TDMA)frame, accessing the RF bus via an allocated frequency slot of afrequency division multiple access (FDMA) frame, accessing the RF busvia an allocated code slot of a code division multiple access (CDMA)frame, and/or accessing the RF bus in accordance with a request-grantaccess protocol. Note that the transmitter 842 may determine whether theRF bus is available and secures access to the RF bus by communicatingwith the RF bus controller 88 via a wireline link, via a wireless link,and/or via the RF bus.

The method proceeds to step 852 where the transmitter 842 converts theoutbound information into outbound RF bus signal. The method thenproceeds to step 844 where the transmitter 842 transmits the outbound RFbus signal via the RF bus when access to the RF bus is secured. As such,the transmitter 842 prepares data for transmission via one of the RFbuses in a device and transmits the RF bus signal when it is thetransmitter's turn and/or when the RF bus is not in use.

FIG. 58 is a logic diagram of method for RF bus receiving that begins atstep 856 where the receiver 844 determines whether inbound informationis to be received via the RF bus. The receiver 844 may determine thatthere is inbound information to be received by utilizing a carrier sensemultiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CD) access protocol,utilizing a request to send frame and clear to send frame exchangeaccess protocol, utilizing a poll-response access protocol, interpretinga control time slot of a time division multiple access (TDMA) frame,interpreting a control frequency slot of a frequency division multipleaccess (FDMA) frame, interpreting a control code slot of a code divisionmultiple access (CDMA) frame, and/or utilizing a request-grant accessprotocol.

When there is inbound information to be received via the RF bus, themethod proceeds to step 858 where the receiver 844 determines accessparameters to the RF bus for receiving the inbound information. Thereceiver 844 may determine the access parameters by receiving theinbound RF bus signal in accordance with a carrier sense multiple accesswith collision avoidance (CSMA/CD) access protocol, receiving theinbound RF bus signal in accordance with a request to send frame andclear to send frame exchange, receiving the inbound RF bus signal inaccordance with a poll-response access protocol, receiving the inboundRF bus signal via an allocated time slot of a time division multipleaccess (TDMA) frame, receiving the inbound RF bus signal via anallocated frequency slot of a frequency division multiple access (FDMA)frame, receiving the inbound RF bus signal via an allocated code slot ofa code division multiple access (CDMA) frame, and/or receiving theinbound RF bus signal in accordance with a request-grant accessprotocol. Note that the receiver 844 may determine the access parametersby communicating with the RF bus controller 88 via a wireline link, awireless link, and/or the RF bus.

The method then proceeds to step 860 where the receiver 844 receives aninbound RF bus signal during the access to the RF bus in accordance withthe access parameters. The method then proceeds to step 862 where thereceiver 844 converts the inbound RF bus signal into the inboundinformation.

FIG. 59 is a logic diagram of method for determining whether informationis to be transmitted via an RF bus by the transmitter 842. The methodbegins at step 870 where the transmitter 842 identifies a target of theoutbound information. In one embodiment, the outbound information willbe in packet or frame format having a header portion that includes theaddress of the source, the address of the destination, the size of thepacket or frame, etc.

The method then proceeds to step 872 where the transmitter 842determines whether the target is accessible via the RF bus. The targetmay not be accessible via the RF bus for several reasons. For example,the nature of the data being transmitted may require that it betransmitted via a wireline link, the target may be in a multipath nullwith respect to the source, the target is currently using the RF bus foranother RF bus communication, etc. When the target is not accessible viathe RF bus, the method proceeds to step 876 where the transmitter 842sends the outbound information via a wireline link.

When the target is accessible via the RF bus, the method proceeds tostep 874 where the transmitter determines the type of the outboundinformation to be transmitted. When the type of the outbound informationis of a first type (e.g., tolerant of transmission errors), the methodproceeds to step 878 where the transmitter 842 indicates that theoutbound information is to be transmitted via the RF bus. When the typeof the outbound information is of a second type (e.g., not tolerant oftransmission errors), the method proceeds to step 876 where thetransmitter 842 indicates that the outbound information is to betransmitted via a wireline link. Note that step 874 could be omitted.

FIG. 60 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a transmitter842 of an RF bus transceiver 840. The transmitter 842 includes abaseband processing module 880, an up-conversion module 882, and an RFtransmitter 884. The baseband (BB) processing module 880 may be a singleprocessing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such aprocessing device may be a microprocessor, micro-controller, digitalsignal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, fieldprogrammable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logiccircuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device thatmanipulates signals (analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of thecircuitry and/or operational instructions. The BB processing module 880may have an associated memory and/or memory element, which may be asingle memory device, a plurality of memory devices, and/or embeddedcircuitry of the processing module. Such a memory device may be aread-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatilememory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory,and/or any device that stores digital information. Note that when the BBprocessing module 880 implements one or more of its functions via astate machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry, the memory and/or memory element storing the correspondingoperational instructions may be embedded within, or external to, thecircuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or logic circuitry.

In operation, the baseband processing module 880 is coupled to convertthe outbound information 886 into a baseband or near baseband symbolstream 888 (e.g., a symbol stream having a carrier frequency of 0 Hz toa few MHz). The baseband processing module 880 functions to convertingthe outbound information into a baseband or near baseband symbol streamby utilizing a standard single input single output data modulationprotocol, utilizing a proprietary single input single output datamodulation protocol, utilizing a modified standard single input singleoutput data modulation protocol, utilizing a standard multiple inputmultiple output data modulation protocol, utilizing a proprietarymultiple input multiple output data modulation protocol, utilizing amodified standard multiple input multiple output data modulationprotocol, and/or utilizing a baseband beamforming data modulationprotocol. Examples of this were provided with reference to FIG. 53.

The up-conversion module 882, embodiments of which will be described ingreater detail with reference to FIGS. 61-63, is coupled to up-convertthe baseband or near baseband symbol stream 888 into an up-convertedsignal 890. The RF transmitter 884 is coupled to transmit theup-converted signal 890 as the RF bus signal 892 in accordance with anRF transmission setting. The RF transmission setting includestransmitting multiple phase adjusted representations of the up-convertedsignal as the RF bus signal in accordance with an in-air beamforming RFtransmission setting, transmitting the RF bus signal via a waveguide inaccordance with a waveguide RF transmission setting, and/or transmittingthe RF bus signal via free space in accordance with a free space RFtransmission setting.

FIG. 61 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of anup-conversion module 882 of a transmitter 842. The up-conversion module882 includes a first mixer 906, a second mixer 908, a ninety degreephase shift module, and a combining module 910. In this embodiment, theup-conversion module 882 converts a Cartesian-based baseband or nearbaseband symbol stream 888 into the up-converted signal 890.

In this embodiment, the first mixer 906 mixes an in-phase component 902of the baseband or near baseband symbol stream 888 with an in-phasecomponent of the transmit local oscillation 900 to produce a first mixedsignal. The second mixer 908 mixes a quadrature component 904 of thebaseband or near baseband symbol stream 888 with a quadrature componentof the transmit local oscillation to produce a second mixed signal. Thecombining module 910 combines the first and second mixed signals toproduce the up-converted signal 890.

For example, if the I component 902 is expressed as A_(I)cos(ω_(dn)+Φ_(n)), the Q component 904 is expressed as A_(Q)sin(ω_(dn)+Φ_(n)), the I component of the local oscillation 900 isexpressed as cos(ω_(RF)) and the Q component of the local oscillation900 is represented as sin(ω_(RF)), then the first mixed signal is ½A_(I) cos(ω_(RF)−ω_(dn)−Φ_(n))+½ A_(I) cos(ω_(RF)+ω_(dn)+Φ_(n)) and thesecond mixed signal is ½ A_(Q) cos(ω_(RF)−ω_(dn)−Φ_(n))−½ A_(Q)cos(ω_(RF)+ω_(dn)+Φ_(n)). The combining module 910 then combines the twosignals to produce the up-converted signal 890, which may be expressedas A cos(ω_(RF)+ω_(dn)+φ_(n)). Note that the combining module 910 may bea subtraction module, may be a filtering module, and/or any othercircuit to produce the up-converted signal from the first and secondmixed signals.

FIG. 62 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of anup-conversion module 882 of a transmitter 842. In this embodiment, theup-conversion module 882 includes an oscillation module 911 and convertsphase modulation information 912 of the baseband or near baseband symbolstream 888 into the up-converted signal 890.

In operation, the oscillation module 911, which may be a phase lockedloop, a fractional N synthesizer, and/or other oscillation generatingcircuit, utilizes the transmit local oscillation 900 as a referenceoscillation to produce an oscillation at the frequency of theup-converted signal 890. The phase of the oscillation is adjusted inaccordance with the phase modulation information 912 of the baseband ornear baseband symbol stream 888 to produce the up-converted signal 890.

FIG. 63 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of anup-conversion module 882 of a transmitter 842. In this embodiment, theup-conversion module 882 includes the oscillation module 911 and amultiplier 914 to convert phase modulation information 912 and amplitudemodulation information 916 of the baseband or near baseband symbolstream 888 to produce the up-converted signal 890.

In operation, the oscillation module 911, which may be a phase lockedloop, a fractional N synthesizer, and/or other oscillation generatingcircuit, utilizes the transmit local oscillation 900 as a referenceoscillation to produce an oscillation at the frequency of theup-converted signal 890. The phase of the oscillation is adjusted inaccordance with the phase modulation information 912 of the baseband ornear baseband symbol stream 888 to produce a phase modulated RF signal.The multiplier 914 multiplies the phase modulated RF signal withamplitude modulation information 916 of the baseband or near basebandsymbol stream 888 to produce the up-converted signal 890.

FIG. 64 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the receiver844 of the RF bus transceiver 840. The receiver 844 includes an RFreceiver 920, a down-conversion module 922, and a baseband processingmodule 924. The baseband (BB) processing module 924 may be a singleprocessing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such aprocessing device may be a microprocessor, micro-controller, digitalsignal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, fieldprogrammable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logiccircuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device thatmanipulates signals (analog and/or digital) based on hard coding of thecircuitry and/or operational instructions. The BB processing module 924may have an associated memory and/or memory element, which may be asingle memory device, a plurality of memory devices, and/or embeddedcircuitry of the processing module. Such a memory device may be aread-only memory, random access memory, volatile memory, non-volatilememory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, cache memory,and/or any device that stores digital information. Note that when the BBprocessing module 924 implements one or more of its functions via astate machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logiccircuitry, the memory and/or memory element storing the correspondingoperational instructions may be embedded within, or external to, thecircuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digitalcircuitry, and/or logic circuitry.

In operation, the RF receiver 920 is coupled to convert the RF bussignal 892 into an up-converted signal 890 in accordance with the RFtransmission setting. The down-conversion module 922 is coupled todown-convert the up-converted signal to produce a baseband or nearbaseband symbol stream 888. The baseband processing module 924 iscoupled to convert the baseband or near baseband symbol stream 888 intothe information 886. The baseband processing module 924 may use convertthe baseband or near baseband symbol stream into the information byutilizing a standard single input single output data demodulationprotocol, utilizing a proprietary single input single output datademodulation protocol, utilizing a modified standard single input singleoutput data demodulation protocol, utilizing a standard multiple inputmultiple output data demodulation protocol, utilizing a proprietarymultiple input multiple output data demodulation protocol, utilizing amodified standard multiple input multiple output data demodulationprotocol, and utilizing a baseband beamforming data demodulationprotocol.

As may be used herein, the terms “substantially” and “approximately”provides an industry-accepted tolerance for its corresponding termand/or relativity between items. Such an industry-accepted toleranceranges from less than one percent to fifty percent and corresponds to,but is not limited to, component values, integrated circuit processvariations, temperature variations, rise and fall times, and/or thermalnoise. Such relativity between items ranges from a difference of a fewpercent to magnitude differences. As may also be used herein, theterm(s) “coupled to” and/or “coupling” and/or includes direct couplingbetween items and/or indirect coupling between items via an interveningitem (e.g., an item includes, but is not limited to, a component, anelement, a circuit, and/or a module) where, for indirect coupling, theintervening item does not modify the information of a signal but mayadjust its current level, voltage level, and/or power level. As mayfurther be used herein, inferred coupling (i.e., where one element iscoupled to another element by inference) includes direct and indirectcoupling between two items in the same manner as “coupled to”. As mayeven further be used herein, the term “operable to” indicates that anitem includes one or more of power connections, input(s), output(s),etc., to perform one or more its corresponding functions and may furtherinclude inferred coupling to one or more other items. As may stillfurther be used herein, the term “associated with”, includes directand/or indirect coupling of separate items and/or one item beingembedded within another item. As may be used herein, the term “comparesfavorably”, indicates that a comparison between two or more items,signals, etc., provides a desired relationship. For example, when thedesired relationship is that signal 1 has a greater magnitude thansignal 2, a favorable comparison may be achieved when the magnitude ofsignal 1 is greater than that of signal 2 or when the magnitude ofsignal 2 is less than that of signal 1.

While the transistors in the above described figure(s) is/are shown asfield effect transistors (FETs), as one of ordinary skill in the artwill appreciate, the transistors may be implemented using any type oftransistor structure including, but not limited to, bipolar, metal oxidesemiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET), N-well transistors,P-well transistors, enhancement mode, depletion mode, and zero voltagethreshold (VT) transistors.

The present invention has also been described above with the aid ofmethod steps illustrating the performance of specified functions andrelationships thereof. The boundaries and sequence of these functionalbuilding blocks and method steps have been arbitrarily defined hereinfor convenience of description. Alternate boundaries and sequences canbe defined so long as the specified functions and relationships areappropriately performed. Any such alternate boundaries or sequences arethus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.

The present invention has been described above with the aid offunctional building blocks illustrating the performance of certainsignificant functions. The boundaries of these functional buildingblocks have been arbitrarily defined for convenience of description.Alternate boundaries could be defined as long as the certain significantfunctions are appropriately performed. Similarly, flow diagram blocksmay also have been arbitrarily defined herein to illustrate certainsignificant functionality. To the extent used, the flow diagram blockboundaries and sequence could have been defined otherwise and stillperform the certain significant functionality. Such alternatedefinitions of both functional building blocks and flow diagram blocksand sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimedinvention. One of average skill in the art will also recognize that thefunctional building blocks, and other illustrative blocks, modules andcomponents herein, can be implemented as illustrated or by discretecomponents, application specific integrated circuits, processorsexecuting appropriate software and the like or any combination thereof.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A radio frequency (RF) device comprising: aprocessing module operable to encode outbound data to produce outboundencoded data; a RF transceiver coupled to the processing module andoperable to convert the outbound encoded data into an outbound RFsignal; a RF bus transceiver coupled to the processing module; and anetwork connection module coupled to provide a connection to a network,wherein the network connection module includes a network connection RFbus transceiver that is operable to exchange the outbound data with theRF bus transceiver via an RF bus.
 2. The RF device of claim 1, whereinthe outbound RF signals have a first carrier frequency; and the RF busis operable to support RF bus communications having a second carrierfrequency, wherein the first or the second carrier frequency is within a60 GHz frequency band.
 3. The RF device of claim 1 further comprising anRF bus controller, wherein the outbound RF signals have a carrierfrequency within a frequency band and the RF bus supporting RF buscommunications having the carrier frequency, wherein the RF buscontroller controls access to carrier frequencies within the frequencyband.
 4. The RF device of claim 1, wherein the network connection modulefurther comprises at least one of: a wireless local area network (WLAN)transceiver to provide the connection to the network; a wirelesspersonal area network (WPAN) transceiver to provide the connection tothe network; a wireline network card to provide the connection to thenetwork; and a serial interface to provide the connection to thenetwork.
 5. The RF device of claim 1: further comprising a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN) transceiver to provide the connection to thenetwork, wherein: the outbound RF signals have a first carrierfrequency; the RF bus supporting RF bus communications having a secondcarrier frequency; and the WLAN transceiver transceiving RF signalshaving a third carrier frequency, wherein the first, second or the thirdcarrier frequency is within a 60 GHz frequency band.
 6. The RF device ofclaim 5, further comprising an RF bus controller, wherein the outboundRF signals have a carrier frequency within a frequency band and the RFbus supporting RF bus communications having the carrier frequency withinthe frequency band, wherein the RF bus controller controls access tocarrier frequencies within the frequency band, and wherein a WLANtransceiver transceives RF signals having a carrier frequency outside ofthe frequency band.
 7. The RF device of claim 5 further comprising an RFbus controller, wherein the outbound RF signals have a carrier frequencywithin a frequency band, the RF bus supporting RF bus communicationshaving the carrier frequency within the frequency band, wherein the WLANtransceiver transceives RF signals having a carrier frequency within thefrequency band, and wherein the RF bus controller controls access tocarrier frequencies within the frequency band.
 8. A method comprising:encoding outbound data to produce outbound encoded data by a processingmodule; converting the outbound encoded data into an outbound RF signalby an RF transceiver; connecting to a network by a network connectionmodule; and communicating the outbound data between the processingmodule and the network connection module via an RF bus.
 9. The method ofclaim 8, wherein: the outbound RF signals have a first carrierfrequency; and the RF bus supports RF bus communications having a secondcarrier frequency, wherein the first or the second carrier frequency iswithin a 60 GHz frequency band.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein theoutbound RF signals have a carrier frequency within a frequency band andthe RF bus supports RF bus communications having the carrier frequency,and further comprising controlling access to carrier frequencies withinthe frequency band.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein networkcommunications comprise at least one of: wireless local area network(WLAN) communications; wireless personal area network (WPAN)communications; wireline network communications; and serial networkcommunications.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein: the outbound RFsignals have a first carrier frequency; the RF bus supports RF buscommunications having a second carrier frequency; and networkcommunications have a third carrier frequency, wherein the first, secondor the third carrier frequency is within a 60 GHz frequency band. 13.The method of claim 8, wherein: the outbound RF signals have a carrierfrequency within a frequency band; wherein the RF bus supports RF buscommunications having the carrier frequency within the frequency band;and further comprising: controlling access to carrier frequencies withinthe frequency band; and transceiving network RF signals with a carrierfrequency outside of the frequency band.
 14. A radio frequency (RF)device comprising: a processing module operable to decode inboundencoded data to produce inbound data; a RF transceiver coupled to theprocessing module and operable to convert an inbound RF signal into theinbound encoded data, wherein the inbound RF signal has a first carrierfrequency; a RF bus transceiver coupled to the processing module,wherein the RF bus transceivers is operable to transceiver RF buscommunications having a second carrier frequency; and a wireless localarea network (WLAN) transceiver module operable to provide a wirelessconnection to a network, wherein the WLAN transceiver module includes anetwork connection RF bus transceiver that is operable to exchange theinbound data with the RF bus transceiver via an RF bus and wherein theWLAN transceiver is operable for transceiving RF signals having a thirdcarrier frequency.
 15. The RF device of claim 14, wherein the first,second or the third carrier frequency is within a 60 GHz frequency band.16. The RF device of claim 14, further comprising an RF bus controller,wherein the first carrier frequency and the second carrier frequency arein the same frequency band and wherein the RF bus controller controlsaccess to carrier frequencies within the frequency band.
 17. The RFdevice of claim 16, wherein the first and the second carrier frequencyare within a 60 GHz frequency band.
 18. The RF device of claim 17,wherein the WLAN transceiver is operable for transceiving RF signalshaving the third carrier frequency outside of the frequency band. 19.The RF device of claim 16, wherein the WLAN transceiver is operable fortransceiving RF signals having the third carrier frequency within thefrequency band.
 20. The RF device of claim 16, further comprising an RFbus controller wherein the RF bus controller is operable to controlaccess to the first carrier frequency and the second carrier frequencywithin a frequency band.